


In Hell, I'll Be In Good Company

by attackamazon



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Dom/sub Undertones, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Good and Evil, Grief/Mourning, Heroes to Villains, Hurt/Comfort, Intimacy, Intrigue, Justice, Lost Love, Love, Military Background, Minor Character Death, Moral Ambiguity, Moral Bankruptcy, Murder, Organized Crime, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Power Dynamics, Psychological Trauma, Raiders, Rivalry, Romantic Angst, Rough Sex, Sacrifice, Suicidal Thoughts, Sympathetic Villains, The Author Regrets Everything, Torture, Tragic Romance, Unhealthy Relationships, Violence, villains in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-12-26 00:00:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18271736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attackamazon/pseuds/attackamazon
Summary: The fragile peace in Nuka-World is a hair's breadth away from exploding.  Porter Gage needs a strongman to keep the gangs in line and the heat off of himself.  One that isn't a damned fool this time.  One that he can control.With nothing left to lose, Nora Cash - burned-out veteran, con artist, dead woman walking - just wants an end to the nightmare.They're a match made in hell and the Commonwealth will never be the same again.  But everything comes home to roost sooner or later.  When Nora's past comes knocking, will she choose the people she left behind or the monsters with whom she now belongs?





	1. The End of the Line

**Author's Note:**

> I'm too soft-hearted to make it all the way through evil playthroughs usually, but I frigging love Gage and the Nuka-World expansion. Worth it. I had started this with the intention of it being a one-shot, but then 30,000 words in and here we are. I'm fascinated lately by amoral protagonists, sympathetic villains, and the like. I wanted to write a Bonnie and Clyde style romance between two fucked up people that are clearly bad for each other and everyone around them, but also sort of perfect for each other at the same time. I wanted to write F!Sole as a veteran like her husband for this one as one can only write so many snarky lawyers.
> 
> So, here, have some angst and drama. The NSFW content starts in chapter 2.
> 
> ***WARNING: there is suicidal ideation and behavior in this chapter as well as graphic descriptions of gore.***

_ "Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall." - William Shakespeare, “Measure by Measure” _

 

 Porter Gage hadn’t thought much of the Boss when he had first laid eyes on her.

“New meat,” the Operator on watch - one of Mags’ tech girls - announced suddenly from the ancient bank of monitors in Cola-Cars’ security office.

Gage approached and leaned over her shoulder to squint at the grainy image of the Nuka-World tram station with his one good eye.  The last few chumps that had fallen for the trap hadn’t lasted more than a room or two in the Gauntlet. Maybe this one would provide some decent entertainment before snuffing it, at least.  Or, maybe the solution to his problems had just stepped through the door. You could never tell what was going to turn up.

It was a woman this time.  Alone, but from her blackout combat armor and the gear strapped to her, it looked like she had come ready for a fight.  Before he could get his hopes up, though, she lowered her rifle enough for Gage to catch sight of the Gunner skull stenciled onto her chest plate.  He sighed and shook his head.

“Another damn merc.  Those bastards are like cockroaches.”

Still, he watched carefully as Harvey launched into his “wounded family man” routine to draw her in.  Mercenaries were usually light on brains, but they tended to take a beating better than most of the fodder that went through the meat grinder.  On the off chance that she survived and he had to make a decision, he should know what kind of sucker he was dealing with. The last thing he needed was another dumb asshole like Colter on his hands.

Time and patience were wearing thin out in Nuka-Town, though, and something would have to give soon. Gage supposed that he could have worse material to work with than a grunt used to following orders. Didn’t cost anything to see how this played out before writing her off.

“Please, you have to help my family. You’re here for a reason - you have to be!  I can pay you. Just, please, hurry!” he could hear Harvey pleading.

It was a good con.  The trader had proven to be a deft hand at drawing in chumps of all kinds, but then Gage supposed that he had plenty of motivation.  It was amazing what a man could get done when you threatened to torture people he cared about.

The merc hadn’t rushed to his aid like some of the rubes did, but then Gage had seen enough Gunners work to know that most of them wouldn’t even help their own if they didn’t have to.  Finally, though, the woman reached for something in one of the pouches on her harness.

“Fine. Let me fix you up first, then we’ll talk payment and what I’m up against.”

Gage chuckled appreciatively, adding another tick in her favor to his mental tally.  Typical merc, always thinking about the caps, but at least she wasn’t some soft bleeding-heart ready to charge in on sentiment.  This one might have some promise after all.

But that’s when Harvey fucked up.

“No, no, I’ll be alright.  Save it for my wife and son, they might need it more.”

Gage knew that it was a mistake from the moment the words left the man’s mouth and so did Harvey from the sudden spike of fear in the trader’s voice.  Even the stupidest merc knew that a man with a gut wound was in no position to turn down a stimpack, but she had called his bluff and he had panicked. Ol’ Harv had better figure something out quick or he was about to get a bullet in him for real.

Gage couldn’t see the woman’s face from the angle of the camera, but he could hear the humor in her response.

“You can’t pay me if you’re dead,” she pointed out reasonably before her calm voice took on a sinister lift. “But, then, you were never wounded to begin with. At least, you weren’t until now.”

“Oh, shit,” the Operator giggled, shuffling eagerly in her seat at the prospect of bloodshed.  “Guess we’re going to need new bait after this, huh?”

Gage shushed her and concentrated on the exchange, leaning further in as he waited to see what the merc would do about it now that the jig was up.  Harvey scrambled to his feet, stammering apologies as she drew her gun.

“You were doing so well, too,” the woman sympathized with a sigh as she checked the clip and silencer. “The bruises and bloody shirt were a nice touch. I would have left a blood trail on the floor to give it that extra bit of credibility, but then I’m a perfectionist.”

“Wait!  Shit! Please, I’m just doing my job.  I don’t have a choice!”

The trader was clearly terrified, but the merc didn’t sound rattled or angry in the slightest.  She seemed to reconsider.

“I do hate to see talent go to waste.  So, how about this, one grifter to another: you tell me what’s really waiting at the end of the line here and I won’t help you improve your disguise by making that wound a reality.”

Harvey spilled the beans immediately, telling her about the Nuka-World raiders and the park - but not about the Gauntlet, Gage noted with a smirk.  Smart. The man knew that he was being watched and he was still playing the game, just for higher stakes now. If he pissed off the Gunner, she would kill him.  Hell, she might kill him anyway for the fun of it. If he failed to reel her in, though, one of his friends back in Nuka-Town was going to entertain the Disciples for awhile and probably end up scattered around their lair as decor.  The only way he was going to come out of this clean was to convince her to get on that tram without shooting him and he knew it. He was trying every last trick in the book.

And damned if it didn’t work.

The merc took in his information.  She paced a few thoughtful steps around the trader like a cat toying with a mouse.

“And, if you don’t send enough bodies through, they kill you or someone you care about,” she finished for him matter-of-factly.

Gage couldn’t hear the whispered, broken response, but it didn’t matter.  He could guess. And that was why Harvey’s performances always worked. There was more truth in them than not.

A long silence filled the tram station.  Even Gage’s breath caught in suspense.

“Well,” the merc replied at last, holstering her weapon, “today is your lucky day.  I feel like taking a ride.”

“Wait, what the hell? Is she still --” the Operator exclaimed in confusion as they watched the mercenary take the terminal code from Harvey and walk off camera.

“Show time,” Gage interrupted, clapping the girl on the shoulder. “Go tell Redeye to get his ass down here.  I’ll let the Boss know we’ve got a live one for him.”

He slid into the seat at the security desk as the Operator hurried off.  As he watched, the tram doors slid open and the mercenary reappeared in front of them.  For an instant, as she glanced around her, he had his first good look at her face.

Even with the shitty camera quality and that Gunner tattoo on her forehead, she was a stunner.  Dark hair was pulled back from a clear-skinned face set with large eyes and curving lips. She was younger than he would have thought from the way she carried herself.  He had expected a scarred up veteran wastelander, not the smooth piece of work on the screen. It was almost a shame to waste a woman like that on the Gauntlet, but that was neither here nor there now.

He had promised a replacement for Colter and it couldn’t wait much longer.  The gang bosses weren’t going to be impressed by a merc with a pretty face alone, but this one - she had brains to her.  She clearly had a set of brass balls to go with them, too, walking into what she already knew was a trap like this. If she had enough fight in her to survive, she was the best he was likely to find - a willing victim.

Gage made his decision, running a hand thoughtfully across his shaggy stripe of a mohawk as he watched the doors close and the tram leave the station.  The Gauntlet itself was up to her, but he would offer her the edge that she needed to face Colter. If she was smart enough to listen and good enough to pull the plan off, then they might just be in business.

He checked the microphone, wincing at the squeal of feedback as the signal resolved itself into the tram’s public address system.  Imagining the look on the merc’s face when she passed the Hanging Tree - the branches dangling the bodies of those who had gone before her - brought a grin to his own.  It was the first hint most suckers got that they had been had.

“Well, well,” he drawled into the mic. “Look who learned the truth and still showed up.”

~~0~~

Surrounded by death and still Nora couldn’t find it within herself to die.  The constant irritation of the announcer’s voice echoing through the foul warrens of the Gauntlet was enough to bring her close, though. 

“God damn, look who’s in the homestretch!” she heard him crow, the words reverberating louder now as she slipped through a doorway and into the next round of torment.

A canyon of passages greeted her, caged over with a ceiling of chain-link fencing open to the grey sky above.  She dropped into a crouch in the shadow of the wall and listened to the hoots and chanting in the distance.

“Time for some audience participation!”

Further along and above, she heard war-whoops and the metallic rattle of raider scrap armor.  They were lining up to fire down at her as she navigated the maze. The phrase “like shooting fish in a barrel” came to mind, suddenly taking on a very real and terrible image for the first time in her life.

Nora closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath as she wiped the sweat and streaks of blood from her brow.

_ Do it,  _ she told herself.

It would be easy. All she had to do was just stand up and start running.  She was fast, but not fast enough to outrun a firing squad of raiders. It was what she had come here for.  The pain wouldn’t last long and it would all be over.

Nora had told herself that in the transit station as she stepped onto the tram.  She had told herself that in the first room of the Gauntlet as she had dodged from cover to cover, taking down turrets as she went.  She had repeated it over and over in the mine-lined, gasoline-soaked tunnel underground as she felt her way along, disarming the explosives in the dark by the red glare of their own arming lights.  She had thought something similar many times before now as she contemplated the loaded pistol or the lethal dose of Med-X in her hands.

It was never enough to tip the balance.

She was dead already, or “missing in action” officially as far as anyone who cared was concerned, but the soldier in her - the part of her that had killed its way through two deployments and brought her home again before the bombs fell - refused to lay down so easily.  The conwoman that her father had raised her to be before she had fled into the army clamoured to swindle Death just one more time. The animal instinct to survive at all costs always clawed its way out through her resolve in the end.

Cursing under her breath, Nora activated the Stealth Boy on her wrist and began to move, creeping swiftly along the walls as fast as she knew the field would allow.  She darted from shadow to shadow beneath the howls of the agitated raiders. The device would only cloak her for a short time and she made every second of it count as she wove her way through the labyrinth and finally caught sight of the door on the other side.

Maybe she would work up the courage in the next trap.

But no new obstacle waited on the other side of the door.  A siren wailed and lights flashed. The voice announced that the “main event” was about to begin.  Tired, aching from the exertion and a few minor injuries, Nora wandered cautiously through the corridor, past the impaled bodies of several pior victims, and up a short flight of stairs to a window.  She looked out over what had once been a bumper-cars arena and which was now, quite clearly, a gladiator pit.

The cars were rotten shells now, but among their remains stood a man in a suit of heavily modified power armor.  An assistant was connecting him up to one of the old electric rails that dangled from the ceiling. The main event, clearly.  

Grim relief spread across Nora like a thick, heavy blanket as she smiled down at doom.  It looked like the decision would be taken out of her hands after all.

The armored figure turned to her at last and a speaker crackled to life in the room, but she paid little attention to the bluster.  Of course the fight would be stacked in favor of the raider. Of course there was no chance that they would let a survivor leave the trap alive.  Her death would be entertainment for those that were filing into the viewing area beyond the arena floor while also allowing their leader to flex his muscles for them a little.  An old, old trick in the arsenal of power. Bread and circuses for the plebs.

_ Hail, Caesar, we who are about to die salute thee _ .

It hardly made a difference.  At least she would die fighting.  Nora nodded back at her opponent through the glass and, when the security door next to her clicked open, she walked through it without a word.

A woman’s corpse was the first sight to greet her, collapsed on a bench beside the door with the head in bloody ruins and a gun on the floor next to the grisly remains.  An obvious a suicide. One last moment of spite before the end.

“Right there with you, sister,” she murmured as she stepped over the body.

“Alright, listen the hell up.”

Another speaker on the wall squawked on and the same rough voice that had addressed her on the Nuka-World tram drifted out. Porter Gage, she remembered.

“If you want to make it out of this alive, I’ve only got a minute.”

The irony of the statement made her chuckle, shaking her head to herself as she paused in the middle of the blood-soaked locker room.

Nora contemplated just sitting down beside the corpse of her predecessor and waiting for the show to begin, but her curiosity got the better of her. There was something unusual going on with these raiders.  A complex like this took time, resources, and know-how to build - something that the chem-soaked, disorganized Commonwealth gangs would never have had the patience for. She might as well die knowing what she had walked into.  If nothing else, Gage had mentioned having an “interesting offer” for her if she survived and she was curious what a raider could possibly want from her under the circumstances.

After a second or two of deliberation, she moved over to the speaker and tapped the intercom button.

“I’m listening.”

“My kind of gal,” he acknowledged, sounding relieved.

He didn’t say much that she hadn’t already figured out herself.  The fight was rigged. No one had been able to take out the raider boss in his souped up, electrified power armor with conventional weaponry.  But Gage had a solution to that in mind.

“You want to win?  I stashed a weapon in the lockers.  Get it.”

So, the underling had it out for the boss.  She was a pawn in someone’s power struggle. Interesting.

For the hell of it, with nothing to lose and nothing to gain either, Nora decided to play along.  There were weapons piled all around her, but they were all fairly run of the mill hardware. The kind of things that Gage had already told her wouldn’t work.  And then her eyes landed on it.

It was a fucking squirt gun. A red plastic Nuka-World Thirst Zapper.

Her laughter echoed off of the metal lockers.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what it looks like,” the man grumbled through the speaker, “You’re just gonna have to trust me.”

“Oh, I’m not complaining,” Nora agreed, still giggling as she leaned against the wall next to the speaker and turned the thing in her hand. “Water and electricity - clever.  You must have a hell of a grudge. There’s just one thing I want to know. After I’ve done your dirty work for you, were you planning on shooting me immediately or were you going to stretch it out awhile? ”

His amused grunt drifted through the speaker, acknowledging the validity of her suspicion.

“You pull this off and shooting you would be a damned waste.  We’re both gonna reap the rewards from this, I promise you that.  You just get it done.”

“Well, then, let the farce begin.”

The next in the series of security doors opened a few moments later and Nora made her way down the ramp towards the final exit to the arena.

The viewing area was packed now.  Through the glass and metal grates of the holding area, she could see bodies moving behind the fence that separated the audience from the arena.  She could hear the building roar of their voices, pitched in anticipation of the bloodbath. The raider boss in his power armor, which sizzled and arced now with blue bolts of electricity, waited beyond the door like something out of a nightmare.  Nora closed her eyes. Her heart hammered against her ribs as she tried, one final time, to force her body to relax and accept what was coming.

There was nothing left in her world to stay for.  Nate was gone. His murderer was dead. Shaun was both found and more lost to her now than he had ever been - an old man committing his quiet atrocities with a soft voice and a smile.  She couldn’t help him, but she wouldn’t go back to her allies and help them destroy him either and so she was dead to the few people that had meant something to her in that life now, too.  However good she was at the work, there was nothing but futility in spending the rest of her days as a mercenary on her own or running special ops for the Gunners. That was Kellogg’s road and Nora had already seen what waited at the end of it.

In all honesty, she knew that she had been ruined for any kind of sane, normal existence long before the bombs dropped.  Best not to drag it out.

_ “Disciples! _ ” the boss screamed. “ _ Are you ready for blood? _ ”

The savage voices that filled the building almost doubled in volume, resolving into an eager drumbeat chant of “ _ Death! Death! Death! Death! _ ” that chilled the blood in Nora’s veins.

“ _ Pack!  Are you ready for things to get wild? _ ”

The chant was joined by howls, screeches, and the furious banging of fists on the metal grate.  It sounded like the devil’s own symphony orchestra out there.

A painful thought flashed through Nora’s mind.

_ The ceiling fan circled lazily in the half-light above the rumpled covers of the bed.  Her head rested comfortably on Nate’s bare chest, his arm draped around her as they basked in the glorious afterglow of the first time since she had returned from her latest deployment. _

_ “Your term is almost up,” his voice rumbled beneath her. _

_ “Mmm,” she agreed noncommittally, knowing where this was headed. “Later, hon.” _

_ “I don’t want you to take the extension.” _

_ Irritated, she sighed and rolled away from him, glaring up at the rotating fan as Nate shuffled onto his elbow to look down at her.  His dark brows knit with concern. _

_ “You’ve been stalling ever since you got back.  We have to talk about this sometime.” _

_ “You really want to do this right now?” she shot back defensively, adding, “And what about you, soldier boy?” _

_ “I’m due up in a year and then I’m out.  It’s getting bad out there. You’ve just seen it first hand.  I don’t want to be part of that. I don’t want you to be part of it either.” _

_ “Very patriotic of you.” _

_ But it was an empty jab.  He knew better than anyone else what her stake in the army was and that it had nothing whatsoever to do with service to country. _

_ “Nora.”  His annoyed tone only made her angry. _

_ “Well, fuck, Nate, what were you expecting?” she exploded, kicking the blanket off the end of the bed. “This is my life.  You’ve known that since the beginning. This is what I do and I’m damn good at it. What the hell am I going to do out there as a civvie?  Go back to the “family business”? Bake and knit like Betty-frigging-Housewife until you get out, too, so we can get ourselves a picket fence and die of boredom in some suburb?” _

_ “I’d rather die of boredom in the suburbs with you than open the door one day to some sergeant with his hat in his hand telling me that my wife is coming home in a box.” _

_ She turned to glare at him, but the look on his face made her anger evaporate.  He knew that it had been a close one this time. They hadn’t talked about it, but he knew her well enough to guess.  He was the one person in the world that she could never hide from. _

_ Nora moved back to him and pressed her face against his shoulder, feeling her husband’s arms wrap around her tightly as his chin leaned on the crown of her head. _

_ “There’s no place for me out there,” she pleaded, ashamed at the way her voice broke on the words. “You know that. Please, Nate.” _

_ “We’ll make a place,” he replied softly, his hands stroking up her back and into her hair as he kissed her forehead. “All I want is to be with you. No more deployments.  No more long hours and letting the government run our lives. I know what it’s doing to me and I see what it’s doing to you, too, even if you won’t admit it. You’re not happy, Nora.  Neither am I. I love you. I’m worried about you. I don’t want a flag on my shelf. I don’t want you to throw your life away. Promise me.” _

“Fuck,” Nora gasped, choking on the curse as her eyes stung.

Before she could force herself to think better of it, she tore at the strap of her rifle, pulling it forward and loading a full magazine.  She felt for the fragmentation grenades on her belt, making sure that they were still in place. The charge on her Stealth Boy was still holding.

“ _ Operators! _ ” the brute in the arena was shouting, “ _ Are you ready to see me notch another kill? _ ”

The noise was tremendous, a wave of murderous cacophony that swept around her in the cage and drowned her in sadistic fury.  Nora stretched her shoulders, squared her stance, and readied herself for the coming assault. She squeezed the water pistol in her fist as a reminder of what she had to do and glowered back at the monster beyond the door as he turned to face her at last.

“And you,” he gloated arrogantly, sweeping a gauntleted fist at her dramatically. “Are you ready to die?”

Maybe it was cowardice - the frightened animal in her brain dragging her back from the edge - but she couldn’t go through with it.  She had promised Nate, not just that once, but every time that she had been sent off into danger. She would come back. She would survive. Always.

There was no one else that she couldn’t lie to and no other deal that she couldn’t cheat, but she had never broken a promise to Nate.

The magnetic lock on the door released and Nora immediately activated the Stealth Boy one last time, disappearing into the refraction field as she charged through the doorway to the arena, Thirst Zapper in hand.

_ Not today. _

~~0~~

Nuka-World had a new Overboss and she was something else.

Gage stood at the panoramic overlook of the Fizztop Grille and watched as the mercenary worked her way through Nuka-Town, finally rounding the pond and approaching her new home.  After the ordeal of the Gauntlet, he had figured that giving her a chance to cool down and think about her situation before they got to business wou ld be the best move. She walked at a steady pace, head on a swivel, taking everything in.  Now and then, he had watched her stop to get her bearings and observe the raiders and traders that were just as assuredly sizing her up in return.

Confident, but not cocky.  Here’s hoping things stayed that way.

It had been one hell of a fight.  The squirt gun trick had worked like a charm, knocking out Colter’s electric defenses long enough for the merc to get the upper hand.  The lazy asshole had started relying too much on his power armor mods and that’s what had ultimately done him in, but Gage had to give credit where it was due, too.  The woman clearly knew her business.

Even on his worst day, Colter was a beast to go toe to toe with and the merc had been smart enough to never let him get that advantage.  She had kept on the move, wearing him down, taking him apart piece by piece. Watching her finish him off - appearing right in the idiot’s blind spot to shove a grenade through the damaged plates of his armor - had been fucking satisfying after the last six months of bullshit.

Now, he just had to make sure that she got on board and did her part.  There weren’t going to be anymore chances after this.

The elevator engaged at last, descending to ground level, and Gage stepped back from the overlook, preparing himself.  He had made sure not to cut her loose from the arena until after he’d had a chance to explain, just in case, but the merc seemed reasonable enough.  She had agreed to hear him out. That level-headedness could change as soon as she got comfortable, though. It always seemed to with raiders; they either lost their edge or took it too far.  She wasn’t exactly a raider and maybe that was a point in her favor, but Gage wasn’t going to risk it. He wasn’t going to make the same mistakes that he had made with Colter.

The lift began to ascend again.  The merc slowly rose into view and he took the opportunity to get a better look at the new Boss now that there was nothing in the way.

The grainy black-and-white camera image from the tram terminal had not even come close to doing her justice.

She was tall for a woman, just a few inches shorter than him, and built with a definite shape to her under all that gear.  By her looks, she might have been about ten years younger than him, but it was hard to tell. She didn’t have the wear on her that most folks who ran the wastes did.  Strange for a Gunner. Wavy black hair was pulled into a thick knot at the back of her head, although plenty of it had escaped to plaster itself to her olive skin from the sweat, blood, and grime that coated her.  Somewhere along the way, she had managed to wash her face, revealing the red “A-” Gunner tattoo above her left eyebrow.

There was no getting around the fact that, even standing there covered in gore, she was one hell of a good-looking woman.

Gage found himself looking back into a pair of calculating amber-brown eyes that quickly swept the area and then settled frankly on him, taking his measure and making no secret of it.  Something in the intensity of that gaze made the back of his brain heat and his thoughts freeze up all at once.

He had never had  _ that _ problem with a boss before, that was for damn sure.

Still, both of their lives depended on getting this right and Gage wasn’t about to fuck up the deal before they even got started.  It would be a lot harder to keep her in line if she decided that she could twist him around her little finger with that pretty face of hers.  He got himself under control, put on a smile, and gestured at the ancient restaurant around them.

“Welcome home, Boss.  The digs are yours now.  Hope you like the look. Colter had some peculiar tastes.”

Her lips curved up, amused.  She cocked her head, glancing around them again before settling her gaze back on him.

“If he was going for the ‘whorehouse in a soda factory’ feel, he hit the nail right on the head.”

Gage chuckled, deciding that he and this Boss might get along just fine.

She listened carefully, interrupting only to clarify here and there, as he explained the situation with the three gangs, the plan for turning the park into a stronghold, and how Colter had left them with a dangerous mess on their hands by not following through. He tried to put a spin on it that he thought a mercenary would appreciate.  She could have stability, resources, control, and more caps than she could ever rake in working contracts out in the ‘wealth. He would walk her through the whole thing. All she had to do was listen to his advice and get the work done.

Her eyes remained trained on him the entire time, taking in more than just the words he was saying, Gage knew.  He would have to play things carefully for awhile until he’d had a chance to figure her out a little better. At last, after a few moments of deliberation, her shoulders relaxed and her cryptic smile returned.

And then she called his bluff just like she had Harvey.

“I see what you’re doing, Gage. Not a bad plan.  You’ve got a tiger by the tail here and you need it muzzled before it eats you alive, but you’re a smart man.  Smart enough to have figured out that this kind of thing works best as a two-man con and smart enough to know that the front man always gets the blame.  The raiders down there need an Overboss to keep them in line, but you? All you really need here is a shill that’s worth a damn and won’t try to buck the partnership once everything is nice and profitable again.  You’re thinking that I might be grateful enough for my life right now to play ball. Am I right?”

Gage had to work hard to contain his surprise.  He stared back at her for a moment, speechless.

She was the first one to actually get it.  Right off the bat, too. In all his years working under one raider boss or another, not a damn one of them had ever had the patience to really think about the long game.  They had usually just gotten caught up in the petty day-to-day bullshit instead and he’d had to work hard to steer them in the right direction. This one, though - she was going to a different kind of animal entirely.

The merc shrugged at him in a ‘no worries’ sort of way before he could figure out a response.

“This isn’t my first trip around the block. The way I see it, we’re both in this up to our necks and the only way out is forward.  So, you and I are going to hash out an understanding before this goes any further.” She stepped towards him, folding her arms across her chest as she regarded him seriously. “I’m not stupid enough to think that I can do this without you.  This is your turf. You’ve got the advantage and the experience. I respect that. But, I’m not going to be anyone’s puppet. We do this as partners. I’ll play Overboss out there, but when it’s just you and me, we’re equals. You watch my back, speak your mind, and shoot straight with me whether you think I want to hear it or not, and I’ll do the same for you.  We’ll get this shit done and both come out smiling. But . . .”

And there she stopped, close enough to him that she had to tilt her chin up to look into his face.  Her smile vanished in an instant. Her eyes went as cold as a gatorclaw’s.

“ . . . don’t you ever start thinking that you can pull a Colter on me.  I’ll try not to give you a reason, but I’ll see it coming. That would be a shame.  There’s nothing I hate more than wasting talent.”

Gage was careful to keep eye contact - you never let a boss see you flinch if you wanted to keep their respect - but a chill swept down his spine that was equal parts surprise, unease, and fascination.  Arousal, too. More than he was comfortable with. 

He’d always liked his women on the fierce side and he had a feeling that this one could give Nisha a run for her money. Something to watch out for, but there was no doubt in his mind now that he’d struck gold with this merc.

“You sure you ain’t never been a raider, Boss?” he teased, diffusing the tension, and saw a measure of her smile return.

“Let’s just say I know the type.  Do we have a deal?”

She extended her hand, raising a dark eyebrow.

He would wait to see how things panned out before he put too much stock in her.  She still had to meet the gang leaders and get to work, but things were shaping up in a way that he liked the sound of so far.  She couldn’t possibly fuck up worse than Colter. He clasped her hand firmly, nodding.

“You got it,” he told her confidently and then a thought struck him. “I never did get your name.  What do you go by?”

Her lips quirked up and she hummed a laugh before stepping away from him.

“You do right by me and I might tell you one day.  For now, ‘Boss’ is good enough.”

~~0~~

First things first.  Before she could set out to wrangle the gang leaders, before she could get started on a plan for taking over the rest of Nuka-World, Nora was in desperate need of a bath.

The stench of someone else’s blood stiffening her clothes might have appealed to some of the psychopaths that surrounded her, but that was not the impression she wanted to make on the gang leaders.  She knew how this game was played. Power and persuasion were about presence as much as strength. They already knew she was strong. Now, they needed to see her take charge. They needed to  _ see  _ an Overboss emerge from the day’s chaos if there was a chance in hell of pulling this off.

Clean water was too valuable to waste and time was limited, so she made do with an old stock pot for a basin in what had once been the kitchen of the Fizztop Grille.  The water turned a foul reddish-brown as she bent over it, scrubbing at her hair and skin.

Ending up Overboss to a bunch of raiders that were one wrong word away from a gang war was the last thing that Nora had expected when she had stepped onto the tram.  It was, however, the reality that she was going to have to deal with now since she had failed to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Perversely, she thought with dull humor, it could be much worse.  The scenery was different, the violence and corruption displayed proudly instead of buried beneath a veneer of businesslike calm, but the basic feel of the place was all too familiar.  It took her back to her childhood - the sharp, smokey smell of her father’s office and glimpses of the men inside that hid their savagery behind suits and smiles.

There was nothing to hide behind here.

Gangs were gangs no matter their circumstances and Family was Family to the death.  Now that she was here, Nora knew that there was little chance they would allow her to just walk away.  It wouldn’t be too difficult to play the game until a chance to bolt for safety presented itself, but then the only thing that she had to go back to now was the Gunners.

What was the phrase?  Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

At least out here, removed from the Commonwealth, she was safe from discovery and the few people that she still cared about were safe from her as well.

Finally clean again, Nora pawed through the sparse selection of clothing at her disposal and dressed herself.  She had only packed a single spare set of fatigues in her ruck and so she had been forced to liberate a few items from Colter’s belongings.  As she was wearing the dead man’s title, she might as well wear his clothes, too, until she could figure out something better.

The faded black tank top that she pulled over her head smelled of male skin, sweat, and cigar smoke and it brought to mind painful memories of Nate.  She had always stolen his shirts to wear about the house because he was what home and comfort had felt like to her. It conjured images of another man that she had left behind more recently, a different but still familiar and safe presence, but that was a pain too fresh still to think about.  Colter had been nothing like either of them and so was beneath her regret. His scent would disappear along with his name in time.

Colter’s clothes were too large on her, but with a few impromptu alterations they would do.  After some searching, she found a mirror that was not too cracked in one of the bathrooms and studied her reflection critically.

The Gunner tattoo over her eyebrow would fade in a few weeks.  It had been easy enough to bribe the commander that had recruited her into letting her apply and maintain it with dye instead.  The raiders didn’t have an initiatory mark as obvious and distinct as the Gunners, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have ways of displaying what they were.  Nora picked up the straight razor that she had borrowed from Gage, flicked it open, and took a deep breath as she carefully got to work.

Gage was a concern, but not an immediate one.  It was obvious that the man wasn’t your average chemed-out raider trash.  He was smart, patient enough to bide his time, strong enough to have survived this long, and savvy enough to know how to work the people around him to his benefit.  That made him dangerous, but it also made him an ideal underboss. It would take time for her to get inside of his head enough to know how to pull his strings, but as long as their interests were in alignment Nora estimated that he was pragmatic enough to hold the bargain.

Still, she could do worse for a partner in this mess. He reminded her of the old-timers that she had served beside in the field and drank with in scummy dive bars all across the country - rough, growly staff sergeants that had seen enough of the world to know that if everything was going to hell anyway, you might as well enjoy the trip.  She had always had an eye for that kind of man before she had settled down with Nate, but Nora would keep that part to herself unless she could use it to her advantage later. There was no harm in enjoying the company as long as the boundaries stayed nice and clear.

When she was finished with the razor, the sides of her head were shorn close to the scalp in a barred pattern, leaving a broad, thick mane of long hair across the top of her head to drape down her back and around her shoulders.  She used the small tin of camo blacking from her ruck as makeup, darkening around her eyes a little for effect. One of the more adept raiders that she had killed in the Commonwealth had sported a similar look and it seemed fitting to appropriate it for herself.

_ If Nate could see me now _ , she thought, staring at the aggressive-looking stranger in the dingy mirror.  He had always loved her hair and she had kept it long for him despite the inconvenience.

One more piece of her gone.

“The cheeriest place in the fucking world,” Nora muttered to the grinning image of Cappy, Nuka-World’s bottle cap mascot, leering at her from a poster on the wall next to the mirror.  A humorless hum of a laugh escaped her lips as she closed the blade and started back out towards the Grille.

Her reservations began to fade with every step down the ratty hallway.  It wasn’t what she had come looking for, but she could do this. She had watched similar scenarios play out from a distance with her father and rival capos among the Families before he had gone to prison.  He had taught her all the tricks he knew so that she could protect herself and contribute to the Family one day when she was married and raising the next generation of Made Men. Before she had become Sgt. Nora Cash of the U.S. Army, she had been Honoria Constantina Armati of the Boston Gravianos.  Larceny, murder, and corruption was in her blood.

She had tried so hard to escape the drag of that life.  She had thrown herself into the military and the horrors of the Resource Wars to make herself safe from it.  Eventually, she had abandoned even the family name to cloak herself in Nate’s. In the end, though, the army had only made a different kind of monster out of her.

With everything that she cared about now burned to ashes, perhaps it was finally time to embrace the monster and make friends with it.

Gage turned as she stepped back into the old restaurant and he stopped dead, staring at her.  Nora’s sharp eyes noted the faint red flush that rose through his neck as his brow flew up and his eye took her in from boots to drab fatigue bottoms up to the tank top that she had strategically gathered and knotted to make form fitting.  She watched with amusement as he lingered on the valley of her breasts for just a little too long before forcing his gaze up.

Nora smirked at him, raising an eyebrow as she hefted Colter’s battered leather jacket up around her shoulders.

“I take it you approve?”

He shook his head as if to clear it, shifting on his feet, but she noticed that his eye still roamed her.

“Damn, Boss, you ain’t screwing around, are you?”

_ Got your number _ , she thought, satisfied as she stepped past him towards the lift.  She could feel his stare move to her ass as she went. Getting a handle on Gage might turn out to be easier than she had expected, although that could pose complications later on.  She would have to wait and see how things unfolded.

“Gotta have a show before we can run the show. I’m off to make the rounds. Don’t wait up.”


	2. Danse Macabre

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Warning: minor character death, graphic torture scene, and use of drugs for sexual coercion ahead***

_ “And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also begins to gaze into you.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil” _

 

Nuka-World was theirs.

Gage stood next to the Boss in the treehouse that rose over Safari Adventure, the last of the parks to be cleared, and surveyed their accomplishments with relief and pride.  They had finally done it. All five parks were under their control.

She hadn’t wasted any time making it happen either.  In a little over two month, the Boss had made good on a promise that Colter had stalled on for nearly a full year.  As Redeye crowed into his microphone daily, this Boss was the real deal and no one could dispute that now.

The gangs were as happy as a bunch of violent assholes could be. They each had their own territory now: the Operators in the Galactic Zone, the Pack in Dry Rock Gulch, and the Disciples in Kiddie Kingdom. With their efforts focused on expanding into their new digs instead of pissing each other off, things had been almost peaceful back in Nuka-Town.  That wouldn’t last for long. Raiders were a cagey bunch and there were always new problems on the horizon. Now that she had proven herself, the gang leaders were going to start fighting for the Boss’ attention more than ever, especially with two empty parks to be assigned.

That could wait.  For now, it was just damn good to see everything that he had planned and worked for over the last two years finally coming together.

“Getting all choked up on me over there, Gage?” she asked, glancing at him with that cat’s smile of hers.  He grinned back.

“Nah, Boss.  But ain’t that a sight, though?  Everything out there is ours.”

Her eyes scanned the dark outlines of the parks in the bloody sunset as she crossed her arms - a gesture that, when she was outside the hard shell of her combat armor, accentuated the rise of her breasts in a way that Gage was hard pressed to ignore.  He forced his gaze away and tried to snuff out the uncomfortable spark that the sight kindled in his belly.

Sometimes she did things like that just to fuck with him, he knew.  They had spent a lot of time in close quarters in the last couple of months, sleeping rough out in the parks, and she wasn’t stupid.  She knew that he looked. Shit, there was hardly a raider in Nuka-Town that didn’t look, although not one of them would ever get up the balls to try something.  The Boss had a body like one of those old pre-War pinups, but no one was fooled.

She carried herself like an Operator, growled like a Pack Alpha when she had to, and, fuck, if she didn’t kill like a Disciple when she felt like it.

She always got a kick out of teasing him and that’s how he knew things were solid between them.  The Boss smiled at her enemies and charmed the hell out of the poor bastards that she intended to fuck over as soon as it was profitable, but she only horsed around with people she liked.  As long as she was laughing at him, Gage knew that he was on her good side.

She wasn’t trying to get at him now, though.

“And now the real work begins,” she sighed and turned back into the treehouse, stretching her shoulders.  “But I think we’ve earned ourselves a little R&R when we get back, hmm? Something to mark the occasion before we launch into something new. No point in fighting the battles if we don’t take time to enjoy the spoils.”

“Won’t get no argument from me.”

They settled into their usual routine.  Gage cleared out a spot in the treehouse for their bedrolls and took a look around to secure the area.  The Boss made dinner. She always insisted on handling the food when they were going to be out in the park for a few days at a stretch.  At first, he had thought that she didn’t trust him yet, but when he had finally asked about it the real reason had made him laugh.

“You’ve been eating shit like cold Cram and Pork’n’Beans right out of the can most of your life and I’m going to let you make my dinner?  Please.”

Gage wasn’t about to complain.  She was good at it. Even when they were taking a breather back at the Grille, she usually cooked for herself instead of getting one of the traders to do it.  He never missed his standing invitation to join her. It was the Sicilian in her, she had told him once - the most that she had ever said about herself even though he didn’t have a fucking clue what it meant. Watching her work, humming and shooting the shit with him as she chopped, tasted, and sprinkled an assortment of unlikely ingredients into a good meal, was entertainment in itself.

She only ever let her guard down that way when it was just the two of them. There was something about seeing a hellcat like the Boss turn domestic enough to cook him dinner that stirred Gage up more than he liked to admit.

They ate by the light of an oil lamp, forking mouthfuls of some fancied-up concoction of mac and cheese as they talked over what was next.

“You got any ideas about who we’re going to give the last two parks to?” he asked.

He’d known the problem was coming from the start, but the question had moved to the forefront of his mind lately.  Everyone would be asking soon enough. With five parks and three gangs, there was no dividing the place equally. One of the gangs was going to lose out and chances were they weren’t going to take it well.  

The solution was obvious: they needed to take more territory.  The Commonwealth was the logical choice and ripe for the picking with all the fighting going on, but his instincts told him that it was going to take some hard selling to get the Boss on board with that one.  Best to bide his time for the right moment. In the meantime, they had decided to keep the last two parks unclaimed until they could figure out the best way to work the situation to their advantage.

“Well, it would be a crime if we didn’t give Safari to the Pack,” she snorted humorously, but her expression turned serious again quickly.  “I haven’t settled my mind to anything. Your thoughts?”

And that right there was the thing he liked most about her.  

Gage had been wary at first, but she hadn’t just been bullshitting about treating him like an equal. With her, he didn’t have to nudge, steer, and do damage control behind the scenes like he’d been forced to do with Colter.  Well, not much, anyway. She was still young, still had her moments like anyone else, but the difference was that she listened. She learned. There was no question about who had the ultimate call, but she never pulled that advantage on him to get her way.  Big decisions and strategy were discussed together. On the rare occasions when they disagreed, she went with his advice.

“Part of being in charge is knowing that you don’t know everything,” she had told him the first time things had gone down that way. “I’ve been a raider for a month.  You’ve been at this for twenty years and you have as much skin in the game as I do. That’s good enough for me.”

“Well, you can’t trust any of ‘em,” Gage began thoughtfully between mouthfuls, “but you gotta figure out which ones are gonna have your back in a fight and whether you can take out the one that loses out if you have to.”

She nodded and gestured thoughtfully with her fork.

“The Operators are going to be the most predictable.  Mags is happy with her profit margins since I’ve taken over.  They’ll back us as long as we keep the caps rolling in. It makes sense to give them a larger stake at home since they’re running the market and they’ll make the best use of that bottling plant anyway.”

Gage grunted in agreement.  Mags and William had always been the most stable of the gang leaders and the Operators were tough fighters despite their primping and posing.  He had been going to suggest them anyway, but was pleased that he and the Boss were, as usual, thinking along the same lines.

“The hard choice is going to be between the Disciples and the Pack,” she sighed as she pushed her bowl away and leaned back in her chair. “The Disciples are good enforcers, but they’re touchy.  Takes a lot of blood to keep them satisfied. Nisha isn’t likely to let the insult go if they're left out. Mason likes the action we’ve been throwing at him and his people pull most of the weight on defense and managing the collars around here. If push came to shove, Nisha would turn on us before he would.  The question is whether we reward the Pack’s loyalty or appease the Disciples.”

The mention of the Pack’s leader almost made Gage’s expression twist with distaste, but he kept it to himself.  The original deals had all been struck with the previous Pack Alphas and Mason had shaken everything up when he had taken over unexpectedly.  Getting things settled back down again had been a pain in the ass. Mason himself was a pain in the ass, for that matter, and Gage had better things to do than play games with an animal.

Besides, it was obvious what Mason’s sudden willingness to play ball was all about.  That first meeting between him and the Boss had made an impression. He’d been trying to fuck her ever since and wasn’t subtle about it either.  Seeing the younger man posture and strut in front of her rubbed Gage the wrong way and it didn’t help that she seemed to have taken a liking to the Pack leader.  He had no call to let it bother him. That was the Boss’ business, not his. Gage knew that she was too smart to let Mason ever catch what he was chasing, but still - thinking about it set his teeth on edge.

She was right about Nisha, though.  Mason was pretty easy to figure out, but no one knew what went on in that crazy bitch’s head.

“You don’t want Mason thinking that he’s got your ear too much,” Gage cautioned, frowning. “That type gets cocky easy.  Start thinking they can get away with shit. Dog’s after a different kind of bone anyway.”

A smile spread across the Boss’ face, one of her dark eyebrows rising as if she had just discovered something fascinating.

“Porter Gage, are you jealous?”

He scowled, annoyed that she had picked up on what he was thinking, but he should have expected it.  It was unsettling how good she was at seeing what people were trying to hide. Made her a damned good Overboss, but it wasn’t working in his favor now.  There was no way that he was going to let that can of worms spill open tonight, though, so he just scoffed at her casually.

“Of that animal?  Come on, Boss.”

“You always tilt your head a little to the left when you’re lying, Gage, did you know that?” she observed, grinning as she laid her chin on her palms.  Those big golden-brown eyes glinted expectantly at him in the lamp light until he finally sighed and grumbled back sullenly.

“Okay, yeah, I know what he’s doing and I don’t like it.  Just trouble we don’t need waiting to happen. Doesn’t mean I’m jealous of that asshole.  Ain’t got nothing to be jealous of.”

“Well, you can rest easy,” she assured him, still smirking triumphantly at his discomfort as she grabbed his bowl and rose from the table, “Your position is secure.  You’re the only man I’m going to be sleeping next to any time soon.”

Gage watched the self-satisfied sway in her hips as she turned away and felt the frustration that he’d been keeping a lid on for awhile now double in strength.  It was his one real weakness and she was sharp enough to have picked up on it faster than he would have liked. She knew damn well what she was doing, playing with him like this and knowing that she knew only made it worse. There was a part of him that wanted to jump up from the table and give her a taste of her own medicine for once, but that could go wrong in so many ways.  

It was a good thing that they were headed back to Nuka-Town.  A week of being out here with her and little to no privacy to let off the pressure was starting to put a serious hitch in his resolve to keep his hands to himself.

It was his turn for first watch.  He settled down in a chair with his gun and listened to the nighttime sounds around them.  After spending a long day hunting down and killing the last of the gatorclaws, the Boss was out cold almost the moment that she laid down.  In the flicker of the lantern, he could see her sprawled out on her back, one arm crooked over her eyes while the other remained at her side with her hand close to her gun.  Her breasts rose and fell in a slow, deep rhythm. Once Gage noticed, he couldn’t take his eyes off of them.

He wondered what it would be like to feel them beneath his palms.  They weren’t large, but they looked like a decent handful. He’d gotten a glimpse a few times here and there while they were traveling. What would it be like to slide right in there between her thighs, hear the noises she would make as he was giving it to her, see her face when he finally let her come . . .

“God damn it,” Gage hissed under his breath, grasping his crotch as his dick throbbed hard and hot against the inside of his leathers.

He glanced at the Boss’ sleeping form again and noticed that she hadn’t stirred.  She was dead to the world.

Something had to be done about this now before it got to be a problem.

Carefully, listening for any sign that she might wake up, Gage undid his belt and trousers and sucked in a groan as his callused hand wrapped around his cock.  It had been far, far too long since he’d been laid - not since before the Boss had shown up. Not that there weren’t offers. There were always women willing to cozy up to someone like him thinking that it could get them somewhere, and he’d taken a few up on it now and then.  Taking over the parks had eaten up most of his time lately, but even when they were stopped back in Nuka-Town for a day or two it just hadn’t felt right somehow to bring a girl back to his quarters in Fizztop with the Boss around.

It didn’t take long to finish with the thoughts already running wild in his head.  Gage shuddered and gritted his teeth to hold in the growl of blessed relief as he pumped himself dry.  Instantly he felt calmer, sinking back into the chair and closing his eyes as he drew a deep breath. It would be enough to keep him on the level until they got back home at least.

“Brav-o, Gage,” the Boss’ voice spoke clearly in the dim light of the treehouse. “Encore.”

His balls nearly shot up to hide behind his liver in shock.

She was still laying in the same position, but grinning now.  He could see the lamp light glint off of her teeth as she started laughing and rolled onto her side with her back to him.  His brain still fuzzed out from the orgasm and his spine electric with the surprise of being caught, Gage leapt up clumsily to do up his leathers and wipe his hand off on an old rag. He stared at the woman who was still giggling there on her sleeping bag for a long minute before he could bring himself to breathe again.

There had been no hint that she had been awake or he wouldn’t have risked it.  Fuck. Had she been watching him or had he just been less quiet than he’d thought?  And if she had been watching . . . what the hell did that mean?

Ultimately, his heart still pounding, he decided that it didn’t matter.  Gage settled himself back down in his chair to resume his watch, feeling his face burning with embarrassment and knowing that she was never going to let him hear the end of this.

But she was laughing.  And that meant that they were still okay.

She never needed to know that it was the thought of her, writhing and begging on his lap as he drilled her raw, that had done it for him in the end.

~~0~~

“You ready to get this show on the road?”

At the sound of Gage’s gruff voice, Nora glanced back into the treehouse from where she was poised at the window overlooking the Primate House.  The big raider had been trying to hide it behind his usual easy-going manner all morning, but she could tell that he was still sheepish about being caught in a moment of personal gratification.  She grinned at him meanly.

“I don’t know, Gage, I’m still kind of tired.  Might need to redistribute my load first.”

“Oh, my god, you’re not gonna do this all the way back to Nuka-Town, are you?”  he drawled in exasperation, rolling his eyes upward for patience.

“Of course not.  I wouldn’t jerk you around.”

At his groan, she laughed and turned her gaze back out the window.  

Cito had emerged from the Primate House not long before and was squatting near the entrance, working on one of his spears and enjoying the first rays of sun as if he didn’t have a care in the world.  Now that she had rid his home of the “monsters”, she supposed that things had just gotten a lot brighter for him. Nora watched and reflected on what that kind of innocence must be like.

She wasn’t certain that she ever had been innocent herself.  It was hard to remember.

Gage came up beside her, peering out the window to see what she was looking at.

“Boss, I gotta ask,” he began in a slow, deliberate tone. “You really gonna leave Monkey-Man alive out here?  I mean, he’s gonna be twisting in the wind anyway once the gangs show up.”

He hadn’t been impressed with her decision to let Cito stay in the park.  Nora had traveled with the raider long enough to know that he saw that kind of thing as soft and an Overboss had no business being soft when there was a job to do.  He had a point. She hadn’t really thought through the ramifications at the time, she just hadn’t had the heart to kill the sincere, gentle, guileless young man and his family of ghoul gorillas.  Killing raiders, Gunners, and the occasional trader or settler were just part of the deal, but it wasn’t Cito’s fault that he was caught up in all of this. She had convinced him to share the park with her “friends” and then moved on.

Maybe she did have a little bit of softness left in her after all.

“He’s harmless.  If we end up giving Safari to the Pack, he’ll fit right in.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t count on it,” Gage countered skeptically. “He’s gonna end up with a collar if he’s lucky or as the main feature of one of their cage fights if he’s not.  Don’t need to tell you what the Disciples would do with him. Your call, but seems like we got enough animals to worry about. Might be better just to put him down before it gets messy.”

Nora kept her gaze trained out the window.  She could feel him watching her, evaluating how she was handling this.  If she refused, it wouldn’t be a serious rift. He would just shrug it off, but she knew what Gage was thinking.  She was a raider now. There was no reason for a raider to spare easy prey like Cito. If anyone else from Nuka-Town had been in her shoes, he’d already be dead.

Gage wasn’t wrong about what would happen to Cito when the others showed up, either.  The Gatorclaws were gone, but Nora was about to unleash some even worse monsters on him.  She could probably talk Mason into sparing him, but everything came with a price. She didn’t want to owe the Pack leader any favors.  That was doubly true for Nisha.

Throwing Cito out of his home would be little better than killing him outright.  He could probably survive longer than one of the traders, but the wastes around Nuka-World were riddled with hazards and dangerous animals.  If he lasted a month out there in the open country, it would be by luck alone. Either way, all that friendly innocence would be crushed by the knowledge that his first and only new friend had betrayed him.

It would be kinder to make it quick, detached, and painless instead.

She straightened and gestured for Gage to grab her gun from where it lay on one of the tables.  He handed it to her and she checked the magazine and the scope, scoffing at herself for the squeamish reluctance that suddenly constricted tight in her chest.

_ Don’t fool yourself.  Don’t pretend that you’re better than this. Not after Tianjin and Montreal and too many other places now to name.  This is exactly what you are. _

She raised the weapon, hugging its familiar shape against her shoulder, and sighted down the long recon scope.  Cito was well within range, still working on his spear. Through the magnification of the scope, Nora could see that he was smiling as she exhaled and centered the crosshairs on the sweet spot between jaw, ear, and temple.

The gunshot echoed off of the concrete buildings, ruining the morning quiet and scattering a flock of crows noisily up from the swamp-moss infested trees.

“Blammo. Nice shot, Boss,” Gage congratulated her, grinning as he admired her work through the window.

“Let’s go,” Nora replied without looking back as she threaded her arm through the rifle’s sling, picked up her ruck, and readied herself for the long walk back home.

The ghoulrillas would keep.  The gangs would get some amusement out of dealing with them, so she would leave them for another day.

She felt nothing, she realized as they descended the stairs to ground level. The moment of unease had disappeared without an echo and she was grateful for that.  Old instincts were beginning to rise back to the surface.

Fighting the Chinese had rid her of any fear of killing long ago. In time, it was something that she could even take pride in doing well, but civilians had always bothered her.  Soldiers knew what they were signing up for, at least. The collateral damage was harder to live with. Eventually, the harsh conditions of the Canadian annexation had taken those reservations from her, too.  By the time she had come home from her last deployment, it hadn’t mattered anymore. Once the word came down, anyone on the other side of Nora’s gun was already dead to her and forgotten just as easily.

That cold-blooded efficiency had never really left her, she knew. It had just gone dormant when she had finally separated from the army to settle down and wait for Nate.  In the Commonwealth, she had masked it for the sake of her more conscientious allies - Preston with his naive notions of decency, Valentine’s overactive moral compass, and Danse’ honorable dedication to the rules of engagement.  Now, though, there was no longer anyone to pretend for. The difference between the Ranger that she had been and the raider that she was now felt razor thin sometimes.

And maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.  Gage was right. That softness, as he called it, was for the people that Nora had left behind, both dead and living.  It had no place in her life anymore.

She wouldn’t hesitate to do what needed to be done again.

~~0~~

If there was one thing that the gangs of Nuka-Town could come together over, it was a party.

Nora took her time as she walked through the twilight streets, enjoying the spectacle of an army of drunk, loud, elated raiders celebrating the victory that she had won for them.  The gangs mixed freely for once. The distant gunfire was celebratory this time instead of target practice. The traders had spent a day preparing enough food to sate the whole of Nuka-Town and the booze and chems flowed like water.

A not insignificant amount of her own caps had gone into funding the affair - the largesse of the Overboss. Even after splitting their take from the parks with Gage, the cost was a drop in the bucket compared to the morale and goodwill that the gesture would buy her.  Every few yards, she was greeted by cheers.

Work was never really done for the Overboss, though.  Nora would have preferred to watch the rowdy festivities from the overlook at the Grille, but appearances demanded that she be seen at her own party and, more specifically, that she be seen with the gang leaders.  Her successes had to be allowed to rub off on them, too, if they were going to keep control of their people.

While the plebs were distracted, their leaders were scheming, trying to divine what this meant for the future and how best to capitalize on it.  Not to mention, she knew, how to get their hands on one or both of those vacant parks.

The Disciples were first on her agenda.  Nora found Nisha in a rare good mood, watching with interest as her hulking enforcer Savoy flayed a deeply unfortunate prisoner alive for her amusement.  

Nora took up a place beside the gang leader, making a conscious effort to keep her breathing slow and regular as the stench of rotting carrion around them turned her stomach.  The victim, a male trader torturously suspended from barbed hooks through his flesh, pleaded, wept, and writhed with every cut of the knife. Nisha seemed entirely engrossed in the scene, a long tapered finger touched to her lips like an art critic evaluating a painting. Nora waited.

“I suppose congratulations are in order,” the leader of the Disciples mused in her detached, precise way after a few moments. “You’ve exceeded my expectations.”

“Coming from you, I count that as high praise,” Nora returned casually without taking her gaze from the barbaric performance in front of her.

More than the other gang leaders, it was vital to never show discomfort in Nisha’s presence no matter how disgusting or shocking the surroundings.  The woman was a predator. Showing weakness would only attract her attention and Nisha’s attention was a dangerous thing to have.

“Good.  We can dispense with the formalities, then.  I want to know what you intend to do with the last two parks.”

_ Subtle as a knife in the eye as usual _ , Nora thought to herself, though she could summon no amusement at the gang leader under the circumstances.

A long strip of skin was ripped from the victim’s flesh, eliciting an agonized wail from the chained man as fresh rivulets of blood pattered down to join the congealing pool beneath him.  Savoy, his expression hidden as it always was beneath his mask, chuckled darkly as he stepped back to admire the effect. Nisha smiled beneath the steel wings of her own mask. Nora made use of the moment to assess the relationship between leader and second.

Theories abounded about Savoy, the highest ranking male Disciple in a nearly all female gang, but no one had ever managed to get close enough to the brute to confirm any of them.  He was typically silent and aloof, rarely speaking and then only in clipped, often murderous growls. Tonight, though, it was evident that he was enjoying both the torture itself and his mistress’ attention.

“I’m considering the subject,” she replied to Nisha’s question tactfully. “I’ll announce my decision once everyone has had a chance to celebrate and sleep it off for a day or so.  We all deserve a little rest.”

“While you’re considering, Overboss, just make sure that you consider how valuable my people are to your efforts here - and to your own well-being.”  The gang leader turned her head slightly in Nora’s direction, the smile on her lips both sinister and unusually warm at the same time. “While you’re here, I have a little task that you can help me with.”

Nora listened to the specifics. It was a collar job.  Not usually difficult, although she didn’t like the risk of traveling out in the Commonwealth just to make a point to some rube foolish enough to get mixed up with the Nuka-World raiders.  When she heard the target, though, she shook her head.

“You know my rule, Nisha.  Anyone else and it would be as good as done, but the Brotherhood of Steel is off limits.”

“I hope this doesn’t mean that you’re afraid of them, ‘Boss’.”

The phrase was delivered with an amused lilt, but there was venom beneath it.  Nora knew better than to let the jibe get to her. This was one of her remarkably few rules and everyone in the parks knew that it was ironclad.  She had executed a Disciple for breaking it in her first week. Nisha herself had given the killing her blessing since the major rule of their gang was “don’t get caught”.  No, this was a test. Nisha wanted to find out how pliable she was willing to be now that the raiders were on firmer ground.

“We’re only just getting established,” Nora reasoned, putting enough truth into the lie to conceal her real reasons. “The Brotherhood backs up their people.  We don’t need that kind of firepower on our doorstep until we’ve had a chance to fortify the parks. Patience.”

In the silence between the two leaders, the flayed man let out another prolonged scream that broke painfully in the upper registers.  Bits of flesh dropped down wetly to join the spreading puddle of blood.

“Patience,” Nisha relented at last, sharply enunciating the word, “is something that I understand well.  I suppose you’ve earned mine for the time being. We can let this one go. For now.”

The gang boss stepped towards the suffering victim and held up a hand to halt Savoy before he could make the next cut.  The woman inspected his work, her hand falling onto the torturer’s breastplate for an instant before humming her satisfaction.

“This one won’t last much longer without a stimpack,” she observed expertly and took the knife from him.  She turned to Nora with a chilling quirk of her lips, proffering the weapon. “Perhaps the Overboss would enjoy finishing him off for us.”

Nora allowed herself to return the smile this time, feeling the comfortable numbness that had come over her the previous day with Cito creep back in. This, too, was a test.  She spread her palms graciously.

“That would deprived me of seeing a master at work.”

It was the correct answer.  

The victim - almost unrecognizable as a man now - died a painful, gasping death under Nisha’s blade as she cut away ruined flesh, tendons, and organs.  The trader was vivisected before Nora’s eyes until, at the very last, the heart itself was plucked from its moorings.

The act was impressive in its own sick way.  Savoy stood by, perfectly still and entirely focused on Nisha’s movements.  Even Nora could see the devotion glinting in his eyes behind his mask. She could feel the charge between the two sadists like an arc of electricity in the room.

This was more than just amusement.  It was foreplay. It was a warning. And, she sensed, it was an invitation, too.

When it was over and Nora was making her excuses to move on, Nisha’s sigh had a relaxed, pleasant quality to it for once, like a woman emerging from a warm bath or the arms of a lover.

“I look forward to your decision in a few days.  And don’t be a stranger, Overboss, if you find that our hospitality suits your taste.”

~~0~~

Mercifully, the Operators enjoyed less bloody entertainment.

The Parlor was in fine form.  Nora sat on the old stage with Mags and William observing the debauchery around her in the former theater. Operators lounged about the hall drinking, smoking, gambling, or just enjoying the blissed out high of their chems.  The place had the hazy, dissolute air of an opium den.

“You’ve been busy, Overboss,” Mags Black ventured in her posh, unctuous way as she toyed with her wine glass, a smile on her tastefully rouged lips.

The woman’s pale, peroxide blonde hair and clothes of well-tailored houndstooth were as immaculate as always - no small feat in the wasteland.  Her demeanor was one of dissipated upper-class distinction, but the hooded blue eyes that gazed back across the table were those of a consummate businesswoman.  Cutthroat in more ways than one.

“Time is money,” Nora shrugged back nonchalantly, matching the gang leader’s distracted, conversational tone. “The sooner this place is fully operational, the richer we’ll all be.”

Of the three gangs, the Operators were closest in method and manner to the tight-knit, organized crime syndicate that her family had been immersed in and so they were the easiest for Nora to work with.  Mags and William would have fit seamlessly into the ranks of the Gravianos. Their desires were simple: caps, luxury, and the power to protect their interests. As that was easy enough to arrange in a place as lawless as the wasteland, Nora’s relations with the gang had been steady and cordial almost from the very beginning.

She would never make the mistake of trusting either of the siblings further than their own interests, though.  Even the most satisfied and dedicated capo still dreamed of sitting in the boss’ chair one day.

“A woman after my own heart,” William growled appreciatively over the rim of his whiskey tumbler.

The younger Black sibling had something of a reputation in Nuka-Town.  There were more jokes about his sexual proclivities and the ‘closeness’ of the brother-sister relationship than Nora could count.  William was a tall man, lean in build, with a well-groomed beard and shoulder length brown hair that was hardly ever out of place. Nora had never seen his beaten steel armor with even a speck of blood or dirt on it. He looked nothing at all like the typical raider.  

While theoretically an equal partner to Mags in leading the Operators, William always seemed content to let his sister manage the day-to-day business of the gang, stepping in only when necessary.  Nisha held him in even greater contempt than she held Gage, while Mason just laughed and said that he recognized a “true Beta male” when he saw one.

Nora knew better, though.  There was a reason that the Operators rarely stepped out of line in Nuka-Town.  Mags was the brains of the operation, but William was the one that they were afraid of.  She had never seen the results of his handiwork directly - another testament to his skill - but there wasn’t an Operator in the park that didn’t shudder at the threat of being asked to “take a walk” with William.  

Her father had been a man like that. Nora was careful to always show equal respect to the siblings.

“You certainly continue to impress,” Mags observed smoothly. “I admit, I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of that bottling plant.  In the right hands, it could make us all a fortune.”

_ In Operator hands, you mean _ , Nora thought, concealing a smirk at the tactful hint.

She and Gage had already agreed to give the plant to the Operators, but it wouldn’t do to give up her bargaining chip too soon.  She had a profitable relationship with the duo, but that could easily devolve if she allowed them to get too comfortable. They needed to sweat a little like everyone else to stay sharp.

“It's a delicate investment.  Now that we have the means, we need as solid a foundation as possible to get the most out of this place.  But I hardly need to tell you two that. I’m sure you understand all too well.”

“Of course, Overboss,” the elder sibling acknowledged charmingly.

Nora noted how William’s eyes - so dark under his heavy brows that they were almost black - moved over her before finally lighting on her face again.  It was a nakedly carnal stare and clearly meant to be read as such. The corner of his mouth tipped up as she met his gaze, but the expression did nothing to lessen the hardness behind his eyes.

“Quite the upgrade on Colter, aren’t you, Boss?”

His sister’s laugh was dulcet and soft.  She cast a playful wink at Nora before taking a lady-like sip of her wine.

“You’ll have to excuse my brother.  After your performance with Colter and seeing how you’ve handled yourself here, I believe he’s a little smitten.”

William’s face did not change in the slightest either to confirm or deny the accusation.  He watched Nora frankly, that smile still hovering, as Mags moved the discussion along. Nora felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise in warning even as she outwardly kept her expression congenial.

That conversation had been carefully scripted.  There was no doubt about it in her mind.

She politely refused a glass of wine.  It would be a cold day in hell before she drank anything in the Parlor after seeing the chemical laboratory that the Operators had set up in the old kitchen.  Chems were a staple of the gang’s wealth and it would have been far too easy for them to slip something into her drink. She chatted for a short while before finding an opening to leave.  William, playing the gentleman, rose as well to see her out.

The foyer of the Parlor was conspicuously empty.  Every time that she had visited the place, there had been a guard on duty and a few Operators hanging around the old reception area.  Tonight, there was no one and it put Nora instantly on her guard.

“Mags is right, you know,” the enforcer offered suddenly as her hand touched the cool metal of the door handle.

Nora turned, regarding him silently.  He clasped his hands behind him, those shark-like eyes raking over her once again as if assessing her value, before he approached.  This wasn’t an attack, but that was the point, she determined. The way that William moved was careful, deliberate, and slow. He wanted her to notice the lack of aggression in it while doing nothing to decrease the air of predatory threat.

He was tall enough that she had to look up to maintain eye contact.  There was a faint smell of cologne about him when he was this close, something with a musky, pleasant undertone that pulled inexplicably at the back of her brain.  A sense of deep calm washed over her, relaxing through her limbs. She felt warm, a little light-headed, and suddenly very peaceful.

William smiled again in that way that never touched his eyes and for one brief, dizzying instant, Nora was captivated.  She felt like she was falling - dragged down beneath the surface of that depthless darkness. It was only her instinct for self-control that allowed her to jerk herself back from the brink of danger.  Her nails bit hard into her palms, using the pain as an anchor in reality until the feeling receded again.

It was the cologne, she realized at once.  There was some drug concealed in the scent that was meant to lower her resistance to whatever William was about to propose.  He must have taken an antidote or built up a tolerance to it himself. If her instincts had been duller, if she had not been expecting something, it might have worked, too.

_ You subtle bitch _ , Nora thought at Mags in the other room, vaguely impressed beneath her horror of what could have happened as she added a new threat to her mental dossier on the Operators.

They couldn’t know that she was onto them.  That would only complicate matters. Nora forced her body to remain still and relaxed, holding a vaguely perplexed expression as William leaned down towards her.  She felt the ominous prickle of his beard just brushing her cheek. There was a raw, sensual edge to his deep voice as he whispered into her ear.

“I might just be a little smitten.”

He still thought that she was in the grips of the drug.  Nora’s mind worked swiftly. She could use this, but she would have to make quick work of it.  Feigning a shiver of arousal, she turned her cheek towards the man leaning over her, her lips just inches from his own.

“What about Mags?” she whispered back with breathy concern.

The question seemed to amuse him.  He chuckled.

“She’s not the jealous type. She may even join us.”

And there it was.  Confirmation of what Nora had suspected all this time.  She filed the information away to consider later. William straightened, scanning her body with another smug leer.

“Come back when you’re done with those idiots out there.  I’ll show you just how deep our loyalty goes.”

Nora watched him drift back into the main hall of the Parlor and then exited as quickly as she could out into the warm night air.  She shuddered involuntarily, feeling, if possible, even more unclean than she had among the Disciples.

~~0~~

“For the love of God, tell me you’ve got something decent to drink around here,” Nora sighed as she approached Mason’s throne in the Pack compound - the last stop on her itinerary.

The Alpha was kicked back in his gilded chair, watching a dog fight in the cage that dominated the center of the old amphitheater while his underlings howled, shrieked, laughed, and danced around him.  His striped warpaint was freshly applied for the occasion and two big, ugly-looking dogs in steel scrap armor panted at his feet. He grinned and proffered the open bottle of bourbon that he had just been drinking out of himself.

“For you? I got the best.”  

She tilted the bottle back and took a long pull of the sweet liquor to his grunt of approval.  The gesture was more than just hospitality. It was the most primal of compacts. He respected her enough to share his own drink; she trusted him enough to accept it.

Turning, Mason waved at one of the nearby Pack members.

“Hey!  What are we, savages? Get a chair for the Boss.”

Nora passed the bottle back and then bent down to rub one of the scarred mongrels behind the ears.  The beast’s uncertain growl turned into a tongue-lolling grunt of pleasure as she dug her fingers into its ragged fur and scratched its neck in the manner that she knew was the quickest way to any dog’s affections.  The creature was a far cry from Dogmeat but all dogs were good dogs in their own way.

“You like animals, huh, Boss?” Mason observed, smiling at her when she straightened.

“I hang around with you, don’t I?” she quipped back, flashing a grin at him.

A Pack scavver in a colorful water buffalo mask returned with a chair and Nora settled down beside Mason, allowing herself to finally relax a little.

While she understood the Operators and respected the Disciples’ prowess, the Pack was the only one of the gangs that she had actually come to like.  They were chaotic, squabbled incessantly among themselves, and were constantly provoking the other gangs, but she appreciated their philosophy of life.  They didn’t concern themselves with the past. They didn’t worry about the future. It was obvious that they didn’t give a fuck what anyone else thought of them.  Like animals, they lived in the moment and enjoyed themselves while they could. There were days when Nora envied that abandon.

Mason took a swig of bourbon and then laughed, clapping as one of the dogs in the ring slammed the other to the ground, before turning back to her.

“We ain’t seen a lot of you lately.  You oughta come down to the Zoo more often. Live a little.”

“Now that the parks are taken care of, I just might.”  She glanced at him, raising an eyebrow humorously. “And before you ask, no, I haven’t made a decision about who gets them yet.”

He shrugged, smirking back.

“Hey, I ain’t worried.  So far, you done real good by us. You look out for the Pack, the Pack looks out for you.”

“ _ For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack  _ ,” Nora quoted in agreement and saw the Alpha’s eyes light up in delighted recognition.

She had devoured the works of Rudyard Kipling as a child and her near memorization of The Jungle Book had turned out to be an unexpected advantage with Mason.  He was enthralled by the stories, listening eagerly to the Laws of the Jungle and the adventures of Mowgli and his wolf pack family. It would almost have been endearing if he hadn’t been a blood-soaked raider boss surrounded by murderers, dangerous animals, and shock-collared slaves.  

Nora had intended to read those tales to Shaun one day. She supposed that Mason would have to do.

“What I wanna know,” he continued conversationally as the dog fight ended in a bloody mess and the loser was dragged from the ring to make way for the next round, “is when you’re gonna take me up on my offer.”

_ Batting three for three tonight _ , Nora sighed to herself, but she had expected it from Mason.  His come-on, at least, wasn’t motivated by greed or manipulation. He had been trying to get into her pants since the first time she’d met him.

“Classic Alpha male. Always thinking with your dick,” she teased him crudely, knowing that he would laugh.  He did.

“Gotta chase what you wanna catch,” he fired back at her suggestively and then cocked his head a little more seriously. “It ain’t just fucking, Boss.  You and me - we’re the same. Alpha belongs with Alpha. Ain’t none of those assholes out there gonna keep up with you like I can. You know it. I know it.”

He wasn’t entirely wrong there.  Aside from Gage, Mason was the closest thing to a friend that Nora had in Nuka-World.  She could never afford to get too close, but he was fun to be around. He didn’t try to hide his intentions.  Good or bad, he owned them outright and she could respect that. Under different circumstances, she might have considered the proposition.

“You know my answer,” she reminded him, but gently.

“That freak Nisha and Mags Black can think what they want.  Fuck ‘em,” he snorted dismissively. His grin reappeared as a thought struck him. “You know what? I got something for you.  Come on.”

Wary, but intrigued all the same, Nora followed the Pack leader into the backstage area.  The Pack lived in squalor, all bunking down communally with their animals like bears in a cave, and the place smelled like sweat, fur, and piss.  Even so, it still managed to be more pleasant than the Disciples’ lair.

The old stage storage area was mostly empty tonight except for a few animals in their pens.  Mason led her towards the very back of the communal space near a caged brahmin and stopped at an open wooden crate.  A strange, high-pitched whimpering sound reached Nora’s ears as she approached it. Her heart melted as she came close enough to see what was inside.

Six sleek brown and white puppies milled and mewled around the belly of their mother.  The bitch whined anxiously as Mason reached in and scooped one of them up, grinning triumphantly at Nora as he held it out to her.

“They ain’t ready to leave Mama here just yet, but when they are, you get the pick of the litter, Boss. Gotta make sure someone’s watching your back out there.”

Nora accepted the puppy, a completely unaffected smile crossing her face for the first time that night as she looked into its myopic little blue eyes and let it nestle, squirming and whining, against her shoulder.  

Before his final deployment, when she had first settled down in Sanctuary Hills, Nate had given her a black labrador puppy.  Someone to keep her company as she adjusted to civilian life, he had told her. She had loved that dog. What could have been a lonely, silent house in Nate’s absence had been enlivened by puppy antics and warmed by the furry bundle curled up against her back at night.   He had escaped from his fence and gone missing just a week or so before the bombs fell. Dogmeat had taken up that place in her heart soon after.

She missed Dogmeat.  She missed his quiet company and the times when she would sit down somewhere, trying to wring some sanity out of another day in the wasteland, only to feel him snuffle wetly at her ear before flumping down into her lap with a contented grumble.  He didn’t judge her. He hadn’t cared how broken and fucked up she was. All Dogmeat had ever needed from her to be happy was a good scratch behind the ears and half a snack cake.

Nora looked up at Mason, genuinely touched.

“Thank you.”

They returned the fretting pup to its mother and she started to follow the Alpha back out to the amphitheater floor.  He glanced over at her with a peculiar expression and paused just at the exit.

“You know, they ain’t gotta know.  We ain’t gotta make a big deal or nothing.  You got other things going on, I get it. But you got needs, too, Boss.  Don’t take no genius to see that. You gotta let that wolf out sometime or it’s gonna eat you from the inside, take it from me.”

Nora felt her breath catch as the Pack leader’s hand reached out to squeezed her shoulder.  It was meant to be friendly, she knew. Even Mason wouldn’t risk that much, but his palm was warm against her skin and her reaction to it was unexpected, immediate, and undeniable.  It felt like the sudden easing of a sore muscle that had been aching for so long that she had forgotten what relief felt like.

How long had it been since someone had touched her?  Months, she realized. Almost a year. Not since the day that she had stepped into the teleporter at the Brotherhood base and shattered what remained of her life into a thousand painful pieces.  

Not since she had kissed MacCready goodbye.

_ They had been drunk, of course.  All of her and Mac’s best stories seemed to happen that way. _

_ Nora woke up to anemic daylight, the distant cry of gulls, and the feel of a light breeze feathering her hair.  Her head ached, her body was sore, and her mouth tasted foul and cottony. She was cold despite the warmth at her back and the bit of cloth pulled around her.   _

_ She stirred, groaning softly as she opened her eyes to the endless vista of grey sea and sky.  The pebbly shore beside the Boston Airport stretched out around her and several empty bottles were strewn on the gravel.  The soft movement of another body behind her and the shifting of an arm slung over her bare waist made her freeze. _

_ It was then that she realized that her blanket was MacCready’s duster. _

_ They had come down to the beach to get away from the claustrophobia of the Prydwen.  The airship had always given Mac the heebie-jeebies at the best of times. Nora had shared a meal and a beer with Danse first - one last good talk with a commanding officer and a friend that she sincerely respected just in case things went tits up the next day - and then she had haggled a couple of bottles of whiskey off of the quartermaster for her and Mac. _

_ She couldn’t remember everything that had been said, but she remembered sitting among the rocks under the stars and talking over their memories together.  His trouble with the Gunners. Her hunt for Kellogg. The good jobs. The bad ones. The kids that they were each fighting to save. She had laughed at his corny jokes, the ones he always told to get a smile out of her. Laughter had turned into arms slung around shoulders for reassurance and warmth and that had led to whiskey-flavored kisses.  Kisses had turned into their hands helping each other out of their clothes, his flesh hot against hers in the night air, and the rhythmic ecstasy of their bodies as they held onto each other as if for dear life. _

_ “Nora?” _

_ She twisted, wincing at how the hard stones beneath her dug into her shoulders through the thin blanket that they had brought to sit on, and found herself looking up into MacCready’s confused baby-blue eyes.  And then she saw the memories hit him, too. _

_ “Shit,” he cursed, forgetting to correct himself for once.  He sat up quickly, looking down at her with a guilty expression. “We -- I -- shit, Nora, I’m sorry. I didn’t -- I didn’t mean for --” _

_ Seeing him like that - naked, flustered, and blushing almost all the way down to his navel - put whatever small bit of panic that Nora herself had experienced to rest.  She reached out to him and settled a hand on his chest. _

_ “It’s okay, Mac.” _

_ Still confused, the former Gunner allowed her to draw him back down beside her.  She snuggled close, pulling his duster back over them both against the morning chill. _

_ Though unexpected, it felt right.  They had been partners for months. He was the best friend that she had in this fucked up world - the only person alive that really knew her for who she was and not the faces that she had created to get what she needed. He didn't judge her for the nightmares in her past or the sharp edges of her present. Like Nate, she didn’t have to hide from him. In a few hours, she would step into a machine that might just scatter her atoms into oblivion for all anyone knew. If her last night alive had been spent in the arms of someone who loved her - even as a friend - Nora was grateful for that.  There was nothing about it to regret. _

_ “You’re fine with it?” he asked hesitantly after a few moments. “I mean, I know it hasn’t been that long since . . .“ _

_ “I don’t think Nate would mind under the circumstances.” She leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes. “They’re gone, Mac.  They can’t be here with us anymore, but we can be here for each other. Is that okay?” _

_ He considered and then Nora felt his hands move across her skin experimentally before firmly hugging her closer to him. _

_ "Yeah. Yeah, it is.” _

_ They dressed among the rocks and then started the walk back to the old terminal where the teleporter waited.  As the complex came in sight, he stopped her. The mercenary’s expression was complicated, as if he were struggling to figure out how to say what was on his mind and whether he should say it at all. _

_ “I can’t come with you?” _

_ They had already had this talk.  Nora shook her head, feeling the same pang of regret and fear that she knew he was feeling, too.  She would have given almost anything to have him with her on this, just like he had been with her for everything since they had met. It was better this way, though.  His son needed him, just like Shaun needed her. She couldn’t ask him to follow where she was going, even if it were possible. _

_ Mac’s long fingers spread across her cold cheeks. _

_ “I know this is happening really fast, but with you leaving and last night . . . Nora, I-- “ _

_ She kissed him.   _

_ She knew what he was about to say and also that she couldn’t let him say it.  Not like this. They had been skirting around what was happening between them for too long.  It wasn’t just a partnership or a friendship anymore, but admitting that out loud would have felt like abandoning the spouses that they had lost.  It felt good to finally have it out in the open, but their emotions were raw. Nora couldn’t let him say something now that he would regret later. _

_ “When I get back, Robbie,” she told him, using her pet name for him - the name that she only used when he was injured or sad or drunk or all three - as she leaned her forehead against his briefly.  Her hands squeezed over his for reassurance. “We’ll talk about it when I come back with Shaun. If you still want to, tell me then.” _

But she had never gone back.  She would never hear what MacCready had been going to tell her that morning.  She would never see him again.

Nora looked at Mason, calling on all of her reserves of will power.  She could change her mind. She could follow him to whatever corner of the lair he kept for himself, use him and let herself be used for the same purpose, and then leave again unscathed by attachment.  She was no stranger to that arrangement. Nate had been the first that she’d ever loved, but not the first in her bed. There was a part of her that clamored for what he was offering - touch, comfort, a temporary escape from the hollow hell inside of her.  

The larger part of her, though, knew that it would be a terrible, irreversible mistake.

It didn’t matter that she liked Mason.  It didn’t matter that he seemed to genuinely want her for herself and not for what she could do for him like the others.  The fact remained that she was the Overboss and he was the leader of one of the gangs under her control. It could only ever be a power play, not the release and the relief that she craved.  She could never let him see her vulnerable that way. She couldn’t let him gain that advantage without upsetting the difficult balancing act that was keeping them all alive.

And, if she was completely honest with herself, she knew that it wasn’t Mason that she wanted tonight.

“All I’m saying is think about it, Boss,” the Pack Alpha shrugged, withdrawing. “You know where to find me.”

Nora walked out of the Pack’s compound and turned back towards the Grille, striding swiftly through the litter-strewn streets of Nuka-Town and weaving through the crowds of raiders.  The hour was getting late and the party was still going strong around her, but she had had enough for one night.

Mason was more right than he knew.  Detachment could only go so far. She had seen it happen often enough fellow soldiers during the war, but she had missed the signs in herself with so many other things demanding her attention. Between the shock-collared slaves, the constant and casual violence and cruelty, the ever-present problem of balancing the gang leaders, and never being able to let down her guard for an instant, this place was starting to get to her.  Death, carnage, and the faces of the dead - Nate, Kellogg, Cito, and no doubt now Nisha’s flayed victim - stalked her dreams. 

It was only going to get worse from here on out. She had to find a way around it - to “let the wolf out” as Mason had put it - or it would eat her alive.

Leaving was no longer an option.  She had come too far for that now and, Nora had to admit, she didn’t want to. In a perverse way, for all of its grotesque awfulness, she belonged here.  She fit into her place here in a way that she hadn’t experienced since leaving the Army. After a lifetime of desperate struggle to keep her head above water, finally allowing herself to sink down into the lightless murk at the bottom with the other monsters felt like home.

Nora decided that she would go hole up in the Grille for a few days.  After weeks of fighting, fatigue was just as responsible for her mental state as the stress of the work.  She would rest and get herself together. She and Gage could laugh about what had happened tonight with the gang leaders. Talking to him, teasing him, getting his advice, and being in his now-familiar presence would make the darkness recede for awhile.

And maybe that was her answer.


	3. The Road to Hell

_ I don’t remember yesterday.  
_ _ I don’t think about tomorrow.  
_ _ Now is the only time we’ve got.  
_ __ So steal it. ~ GG Allin, “The Price”

“So, we’re all set. All we’re waiting on is the word.”

“Music to my fucking ears,” Gage grunted at Shank as they sat in front of the Nuka-Cade watching the wild party roiling on around them in the streets.

He had to give it to the Boss, throwing this little shindig had been a great idea.  She’d already proven that she could kick ass when she needed to, but relying on violence and threat to keep control had been Colter’s gig and she had seen where that ended up.  The raiders needed a strong hand in control, but they also needed to see her spreading the wealth around a little - a return on their loyalty. Tonight was going to keep them hyped up for a good while to come.  

Shank watched him carefully, those narrow eyes always calculating under his broad brimmed hat.

“You think she’ll go for it?”

That was the question on Gage’s mind, too.  The Boss had settled into her role better than anyone could have anticipated, but taking on the Commonwealth was going to be messier than taking the parks had been.  She wasn’t soft. She’d do what needed to be done, but he’d been watching her for awhile now and had figured out something about the Boss. She avoided killing whenever she could, and that was going to be a problem.  She didn’t hesitate when the situation was cut and dry, of course, but that business with the half-wit primitive out in Safari Adventure was a perfect example. She’d done the smart thing in the end, but only with prompting. If they were going after the Commonwealth, she would have to get comfortable killing chumps because there were going to be a lot of bodies stacked up before it was over.

Most Gunners wouldn’t have blinked over that kind of thing, but then she wasn’t your typical merc.  Her tattoo had faded away to nothing after the first few weeks, meaning both that she had better sense than to let someone mark her up more than surface deep and also that she’d probably been running some kind of scam on them, too.  Even after this long, Gage barely knew anything about her past - what she had left behind to come here and why. He’d have to fix that if he was going to get her mind right for what was coming.

Shank didn’t need to know those details, though.  Gage snorted confidently at the question.

“Boss knows a good plan when she hears one.  She’ll get on board.”

“Meaning you’ll find a way to get her on board whether she wants to be or not.” The informant chuckled as Gage shot him a sharp look and Shank flicked away the ash from his cigar. “We both know how things operate around here, chief.  How you pull strings with the Boss is your business. All I care about is the bottom line.”

Before he could respond, a movement in the crowd and a few scattered cheers and whistles caught Gage’s attention.  Glancing up the road, he saw the raiders part and the black-clad figure of the Boss emerge. Immediately, he knew that something was wrong.

She always took her time when she was out in Nuka-Town.  There was a certain easy swagger to the way she walked when she was in her role as Overboss. Her head was always up, observing her surroundings and letting the scavvers know that she saw them and wasn’t too good to give them a nod or a quick word.  Tonight, though, the Boss wasn’t quite running, but she was moving fast and with purpose. Her expression as she passed by Gage without even a glance in his direction was stony, distant, and preoccupied.

He remembered that she had gone out that evening to make the rounds with the gang leaders and felt his gut tighten with dread.

_ Fuck. Now what? _

“The woman of the hour,” Shank commented with a sigh as he rose to his feet.  He smirked, touching the brim of his hat in salute. “Looks like you got business to attend to.  You let me know when we’re ready to move on the ‘wealth. The sooner the better. Gotta hit it while my information is still good.”

Gage set off after the Boss, but he knew better than to try and catch up to her. She had always been faster than him and, anyway, it was obvious where she was headed. He hoped to hell that all the work they had put in wasn’t about to blow up in their faces.  

Things were going too good to fuck up now.

~~0~~

The Grille was all but silent as Gage stepped through the back door onto the old restaurant floor.  He could still hear the whoops and howls of the celebration going on outside, but it was muffled and distant this far above the fray.

The Boss was standing at the overlook with her back to him.  Her hands were folded behind her and she was perfectly still save for the slight flutter of her hair in the slight breeze.  He always knew that she meant business when her hair was gathered back away from her face, but she had left it loose and wild tonight.

Gage closed the door, making enough noise for his presence to be obvious.  She would know that he was there anyway. It was damn near impossible to get the drop on her most of the time.  Still, it wasn’t smart to risk startling a woman who could draw and shoot faster than he could duck out of the way.

“I’m curious about something,” she ventured without turning as he rounded the bar, her voice strong and clear in the quiet of the old restaurant.

Her voice was as calm as always, but there was something different in her tone tonight.  Gage couldn’t put his finger on it. He felt his pulse speed up as he moved over to her, his mind rapidly ticking over possibilities.

“What’s on your mind, Boss?”

Her eyes were closed. She looked tired, he thought.  She had a right to be after all the work they had been putting in and the ruckus going on down below, but he’d never seen it show like this before. That worried him, as did the silence that followed.

“What do you do, Gage?” she sighed at last. “You don’t drink.  You don’t take chems. You enjoy yourself when we’re out there raising hell, but you don’t lose yourself in it.  Everyone has their vice. Everyone has something that makes this shitty world even out. What’s yours?”

It was the last question that he had been expecting.  Gage thought quickly, trying to figure out where she was headed with this.

“Shit, I don’t know. I just do whatever is gonna keep me breathing and feels natural,” he stalled awkwardly and then frowned. “Something happen out there tonight?”

She hummed a laugh as if that was an understatement and unclasped her hands from behind her back.

“Yeah, it did.” Her eyes opened and she glanced at him, evidently sensing his unease. “Relax.  We need to figure those parks out soon, but the gangs are alright. I bought us some time.”

He felt the tension in his chest let go immediately as the worst of his fears were allayed.  Still, this wasn’t like the Boss. In all the time they’d been running together, he had never seen her off her game like this.

_ What the fuck happened? _

“I think I know what your vice is,” she continued before he could inquire further and there was a faint note of warm humor in her voice.  Her smile, though small, was genuine.

If she was playing with him, she was okay.  It had always been her way of assuring him that things were right between them.  Whenever he was pissed off or hurt, she would always start up some ridiculous banter to get his mind off of it until she saw him finally crack a smile.  Tonight, it seemed like she was the one who needed that and Gage decided to return the favor

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, grinning at her as he teased back. “You think you got me all figured out, huh?”

She turned towards him then, a move that seemed too graceful for a woman who spent most of her time shooting people and trudging through the wasteland.  Out of her heavy road leathers, down to just trousers and a light tank-top, it was hard to ignore the way her body curved from waist to broad hips at just the right angle to make all kinds of filthy things go through his head.  She must have seen him notice, because her chin tilted up and that smug look that she gave him whenever she caught him staring flashed across her lips.

“Control.  That’s what does it for you,” she observed frankly.  “Not the kind you dumped on me as Overboss, but the real thing.  Being smarter and stronger than the rest. Making a plan and getting it done.  You complain about the bugs and shit out there, but you love it. Everything we take, every kill we rack up, every time we see another sunrise - it means we’re better.  We’re the ones on top. We’re pissing in Death’s face for one more day and that’s what you live for.”

Hell, maybe she did have him figured out.  Before Gage could form a response, though, he was stopped dead by the soft, even pressure of her palm sliding up the front of his chest.  He’d left his armor down in his quarters for the night and there was nothing between them but air and fabric for once. A knowing eyebrow flicked up over those deep amber eyes.

“This, too, I think.”

He should step away.  He knew it. What was happening now was the quickest way to fuck up everything between them and all the warning sirens in Gage’s head were screaming, but he couldn’t move.  Her hand was like a magnet that he couldn’t escape from - didn’t want to escape from. The deep, aching hunger that he’d been staving off for weeks and which he’d been determined to satisfy tonight somehow come hell or high water roared right back to the surface again with a vengeance.

If this was the same game that she’d been playing with him all this time, she’d just upped the ante and he felt a little anger begin to simmer underneath his furious arousal.  This was a step too fucking far. It was one thing to tease him. He could laugh about that. He enjoyed the hell out of it, really, but there was too much teeth in it tonight. What they had going was too important to risk on a joke. Staring back into her eyes, though, he realized that she knew that.

This wasn’t a game anymore.

“Bad idea, Boss,” Gage warned swiftly, shaking his head, but the words ground out as if against his will.

Because, bad idea or not, he wanted what she was offering right then more than he wanted to fucking breathe.  It was taking his whole concentration to stay still when all he wanted to do was drag her over to the bed and make all of those images in his head a reality at last.

“Doesn’t have to be,” she told him and shrugged. “It’ll be whatever we make it.”

Her hand remained exactly where it was.  Gage felt the pressure of her fingertips through his thin shirt as she glanced down and noted with a smile the painfully stiffening bulge in his pants that there was no hiding.

“You can’t fool me, Gage.  You want it. You probably need it after the way I’ve been yanking your chain.  You think I’d be standing here offering if I didn’t want you, too?”

_ Fuck _ , he groaned to himself, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands to keep them at his sides.  She was making it damn near impossible to think. He swallowed and called on his last shred of reason as she turned her gaze back up at him, waiting.

“Look, I get it. You’re pent up.  You need something to take the edge off,” he told her, trying to sound calm when he felt anything but.  He shook his head. “It ain’t me you want, though, Boss. You gotta think about that. You don’t wanna start something right now that’s gonna look like a mistake when the smoke clears tomorrow.”

She studied him for a long moment and then hummed to herself, her hand retreating at last. Gage felt both relief and a plunging regret in his gut at the same time.  He drew a breath and tried to get himself under control.

He could have had her.  He had just had his chance to get what he’d been jerking himself raw over for over a month and he’d thrown it away.  It was the most sensible thing that he could have done, but, fuck, he didn’t want to be sensible right now.

“Gage?”

There was an uncharacteristically soft note to the way she said his name that made him glance back up at her.  

All that seductive air, all that sweet-tongued swagger, had fallen away.  Instead, in front of him was the Boss the way that only he ever got to see her and then only rarely.  It was the face she wore when it was just the two of them, eating together and trading stories - when she was closer to whoever she had been before she’d become the Boss.  She gestured vaguely out at the park, a weak smile on her face.

“Gage, I could go down there and climb onto Mason’s dick right now, no questions asked, if all I needed was a good fuck.  I won’t even go into what the others tried to pull on me tonight. I could get some trader up here and threaten to feed him to the Disciples if he didn’t do a good enough job. I don’t need someone that I always have to stay one step ahead of.  I spend enough time fighting to stay on top of this place as it is.”

And that’s when it clicked for Gage.

She started to turn away and, before he could second guess it, his arm shot out. He dragged her against him, her back to his chest, one arm encircling her neck and shoulders as his other locked her gun arm fast just in case.  Gage felt her body tense hard, but she didn’t fight back. Her pulse was pounding in her throat and he wrapped his hand over it, his fingers gripping her chin and forcing her head back.

If he were anyone else, he knew, she would kill him for this. Gage leaned his lips down close to her ear, emboldened as he tightened his grip.

“You better be damn sure you know what you’re asking for,” he growled. “‘Cause after what you been doing to me, this is your last chance to back out.”

Almost instantly, confirming his suspicions, he felt the tension go out of her limbs.  It had never been more than a fighter’s reflex anyway.

She was right about him.  He liked control. Always had. The Boss was the opposite number.  Now that he saw it, he realized that he should have guessed all along.

Typical merc, still trying to follow orders.

“Raiders don’t ask,” she retorted horsley, swallowing beneath his palm as she relaxed back into him. “They fucking take.”

No arguing with that.

He pulled her harder into him, relishing the noises she made as he sucked bruises into her neck and shoulder. A hand dived beneath her tank top to grasp a breast.  They were just like he’d imagined they’d be that night when she’d caught him jacking off to the thought of her - a firm, generous handful. The cry that she bit off when he pinched the nipple hard between his fingers made him chuckle darkly as he broke the embrace and shoved her ahead of him towards the bed.

“You afraid someone’s gonna hear you?” he taunted her as he tore her shirt off over her head and tossed it away.  His fingers fisted roughly into her hair and he was rewarded by her gasping shiver. “By the time I’m done with you, they’re gonna know who’s fucking you all the way down in Diamond City.”

After two months of dreaming about it, it was tempting just to rip the clothes off of her and get to work, but no.  He was going to savor this. He was going to give her back every bit of what she’d been dishing out lately. He’d be a gentleman, though, as much as the situation allowed.  She’d get what she needed. The Boss wasn’t some chemed-up raider bitch or terrified trader that he could fuck and forget.

_ She ain’t the Boss right now, though _ , Gage thought, smiling to himself as he dragged her naked into his lap on the edge of the bed.  His hands roamed her, taking full advantage of the opportunity to explore every curve and nook that he had been eyeing these last few weeks.  He tugged and rolled her nipples through his fingers, pleased with her breathy curses. She wriggled against the hard pressure of his cock pressing up through his clothes.

“Fuck me,” she whimpered and he laughed at her.

“You ain’t getting off that easy, sweetheart.  I’m just getting started.”

His fingers tracked down to the wet heat between her thighs in their own good time.  She gasped and squirmed, her legs twisting reflexively. More sensitive to the touch than he’d counted on, apparently, but it only made Gage cinch his hold on her tighter.  He forced her knees wider apart with his own, not to be denied. A more urgent moan escaped her as he pressed the hard nub of her clit between his knuckles.

“You know how hard it’s been to keep off of you?” Gage told her low and slow next to her ear as he began to work her in soft easy strokes of his fingers at first that grew rougher the more she whined. “You’re a fucking knockout, you know that?  The way you parade that ass in front of me all day when we’re out running the wastes, I should’ve done this a long time ago. Don’t you think I’ve forgotten that night up in the treehouse neither. You laughed then, but you got a reckoning coming for that one.”

He could feel her getting close, her lips pressing tightly shut to keep her noises soft and contained as her body jerked and her breath came in irregular gasps.  Just when he felt her reaching the apex, though, he stopped dead and heard her disappointed groan as she sagged on his lap. Gage grinned devilishly.

“But not for awhile yet.”

He kept her there, just below climax, building her up and then dropping her until at last he heard her suck in a ragged, frustrated sob.  She was limp in his arms, completely surrendered, and the voice that came out of her was nothing like the confident, sarcastic Boss that he knew.

“Gage, please,” she pleaded, her head falling back on his shoulder as she panted for relief.  “ _ Please _ .”

There could be no sweeter sound in the world than that.

“You’re gonna come,” he assured her confidently, kissing down the line of her jaw lazily as he kept up the constant rhythmic pressure around her clit. “But you’re gonna do something for me first."

"Anything!"

"You’re gonna tell me your name.”

She had always kept that from him, right from the beginning, along with all other details about her past. When he’d pressed her on it, she’d told him that it didn’t matter anymore.  The impersonal title of “Boss” suited her. It reminded her of what she was now and that there was no going back.

There with her completely at his mercy, she wasn’t going to keep it from him anymore.

Gage felt her freeze, her limbs going taut, as she exhaled sharply.  For a second, he thought that she was angry, but then he felt her gradually soften again.  Her head turned towards him slowly. Her eyes closed and she leaned her face into his neck. He felt her hands grip his arms tightly.  Her voice was a barely audible whisper when it finally came.

“Nora."

There was an ache in the way that she said it that told Gage how much that admission had cost her.

"Good girl,” he rewarded her, a rumbling purr in his throat as he let his fingers slide deep into her core at last.

It wasn’t long before she was close again, mewling with every stroke across the soft, sensitive place just inside her tight heat.  Her hips churned and bucked against the heel of his hand, every roll of her body punctuated by a desperate gasp until, finally, Gage felt her seize.  She quaked and constricted around his fingers as she crashed into blissful release and, swiftly, he clapped his free hand over her mouth to muffle the exultant wail that erupted from her.

He might tease her about the whole Commonwealth hearing her scream for him, but he’d look after her reputation. The Grille was open to the air and sound carried.  As much as he liked the thought of letting them all hear who was giving it to the Boss, this was something the assholes on the ground didn’t need to know about. Not yet anyway.

Gage turned and spread her onto the mattress, sucking at her tits as her lips parted and her eyes closed, riding her high like a Med-X junkie.  He rode it with her as his own need flamed hotter.

He’d had his share of women, but never one like this.  The best that he’d hoped for when he’d set out from the Grille that evening was that he’d manage to sweet-talk one of his usual pushovers back to his bed for the night.  This was far and away above anything he’d ever expected and he would take every single fucking second of it that he could get.

Her legs wrapped around his and her hands stroked down the stripe of his hair, digging into his back.

“Fuck me,” she insisted again and Gage growled humorously against her skin.

“You ain’t giving the orders around here.”

They both knew it was a bluff. He wasn’t about to refuse her anything tonight, much less something he wanted so badly himself.

He unbelted his leathers and damn near came then and there when he felt her hand wrap around his solid girth and squeeze.  The heady pleasure of it lit him up like one of the machines down in the Nuka-Cade, curling his toes tight inside his boots as he groaned.

“Please?”

It was all that he could take.  Without even bothering to finish undressing, he mounted her, cursing as he gave in to the urgency that had been simmering just under the surface for far too long.  His cock pressed through her slick, tight folds, hilting himself in her, and Gage damn near saw God. The full force of the last few weeks of denial swept him up in it. It felt like ages before he could manage to open his eyes again and make his tongue cooperate enough to speak.

Nora’s legs spread for him as he filled her and her head tilted back on her long neck as her body arched to allow him deeper in.  Her fingers curled into the blankets. And if that wasn’t the prettiest sight he’d seen in a long time, Gage didn’t know what was.

“That what you want?” he grunted to her, one hand in her hair as the other steadied himself on the bed.

A hard thrust dragged a soft “ _ Fuck, yes! _ ” from her throat and he laughed.

He tried to make it last, but he’d already been ready to blow when he’d started.  It had been too long and she was too fucking much to hold back from anymore. He buried his face against her neck as he took her, pulling his name from her lips a little more urgently with every crashing jolt, until he felt her clench and flutter around him once again and that was what did him in.  

As the white, ecstatic fog of his orgasm begin to cloud Gage’s brain and the pressure reached its boiling point below, a warning thought struck him.  At the critical moment, he hefted up quickly and pulled out, growling and twitching as he unloaded himself across her belly.

He’d never much cared about the risks with anyone else.  It wasn’t his problem and there were ways to take care of it if it ever did become his problem.  He couldn’t take that kind of attitude toward the Boss, though. They had too much shit ahead of them to deal with already.  She had trusted him with too much for him to be careless and, while she obviously liked him well enough to fuck him, the last thing she’d want was for him to knock her up.

Light-headed and still reeling, Gage lowered himself onto the bed beside her.  The Boss stretched out with a satisfied groan, pushing up on her elbows and to inspect his work.  He couldn’t help admiring it himself.

It wasn’t just the stripes of pale cum clinging to her skin.  Small bruises from his teeth and lips were all over her shoulders and tits, darkening rosettes on a field of golden tan.  Like the Gunner tattoo, his marks would fade, but for a little while she’d see them and know whose she was. So would he.

She rose, a little shaky on her feet still, to clean herself.  Gage admired the lean lines of her body as she moved. The Boss was tough, no two ways about that.  The muscles of her back, arms, and legs rippled and bunched beneath the skin, but her shape was all woman.  There were a few scars here and there, though not as many as he’d have expected from a career merc.

He hadn’t noticed it during the heat of things, but she did have one permanent mark on her.  Low on the back of her right shoulder, there was a small black tattoo - a shield featuring a sun and star slashed through with a lightning bolt and the nonsense words “ _ 75th, Sua Sponte _ ” in a blocky script beneath.  He’d have to ask her about that later.

Gage adjusted his position as she lay back down, drawing her against him. One hand toyed idly with her tits as she settled comfortably into the crook of his shoulder, her hand finding its way under his shirt to trace over his skin.

He’d half expected to see the Boss in her rise back up in the aftermath, reasserting herself now that they’d both gotten their rocks off, but that wasn’t who she was tonight.  This was Nora - someone that he was going to have to get a better handle on - and that suited him just fine.

“You’re enough to wear a man out, you know that?” he teased her as the drowsy postcoital haze took hold and he yawned into her hair.

“Next time we can take it slower.”

Next time.  Once was more than he’d ever figured on.  Gage grinned, satisfied by her giggle and the light smack she gave him on his side as he pinched a nipple.

“Didn’t get your fill?  Figuring I might let you get in a repeat performance now and then?”

She glanced up at him, her lips quirking in humor as she raised an eyebrow.

“Are you objecting?”

“Hell, no.”

She shrugged, laying her head back down on his shoulder.

“We both need it and it’s safer this way.  This is just another way of looking out for our interests.  It doesn’t have to be anything more complicated than that.”

Fair point.  Trysts out in Nuka-Town came with plenty of dangers of their own.  He’d been concerned that things would get weird afterward, but Gage understood what she was telling him.  The sex could be an extension of the partnership. She wasn’t expecting more.

“Just don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you ‘cause you’re the Overboss,” he growled to her playfully, palming a breast possessively.  She grinned and he saw a little bit of her earlier blush return to her cheeks.

“Thinking you’re in charge now, Gage?” she teased back, trying not to let him know how much she was enjoying it as he pinned her down to the mattress playfully and nipped at her neck.

His cock twitched again, half-hardening as it brushed the soft crosshatch of hair between her legs, but not tonight, he decided.  They were both tired and there would be other opportunities. She shivered as he kissed her - the first time on her lips - and her back arched into him eagerly. Gage drank it in, and then he chuckled.

“You can boss those idiots out there all day long, but here?  That ass is mine up here.”

It was late - sometime after midnight.  Gage could feel the weight of the day on him and he knew the same was true for Nora as she began to doze lightly against his chest.  They needed to sleep. Carefully, he extracted his arm from under her head and then worked the rumpled blanket free, pulling it over her.  Her hand slid up his arm as he sat up on the side of the bed, stretching.

“Stay,” she entreated sleepily.

And that was the moment when Gage realized just how bad he had it for the Boss.

Never one to disappoint her, he shucked what remained of his clothes, turned the light out, and then climbed under the covers with her.  She sighed contentedly in the dark and leaned back into his embrace as his arm draped over her side. 

Things were going to get interesting from here on out.  That was for damn sure.

~~0~~

Even the raiders of Nuka-World stayed holed up in their lairs when it was raining.

The sky outside was dark and grey when Nora woke late in the morning.  Thunder rumbled in the distance, a dull tympani underneath the staccato rhythm of raindrops on the Grille’s roof.  The gangs would be sleeping off their hangovers from the party and the problem of the parks would keep for another day.  She decided to stay in the warm comfort of her bed. And she wasn’t alone.

“Ain’t this about the best way to wake up?” Nora heard Gage’s good-humored growl behind her and smiled as she felt his calloused hand roam over the bare skin of her hip and up her stomach.

She had always liked that feeling - rough hands on her body. It brought the events of the previous night back to her mind: the weight of him on her, filling her, and that voice low in her ear driving everything but what he was doing to her out of her head.  Thinking about it made some of that heat return and she realized that she wasn’t the only one. There was a conspicuous nudge at the base of her spine and Nora had been a married woman for long enough to recognize what that meant.

“Seems like you have the ‘rise’ part of ‘rise and shine’ already covered,” she teased him as he pulled her more firmly into him, the evidence pressing harder against her ass.

“Think I’m gonna leave the shining up to you, then.”

With nothing pressing for once and nowhere to go, they took their time.  He wasn’t gentle, his hand wrapped around her throat and his breath hot on her skin as he fucked into her hard, but then Nora didn’t want him to be. She wasn’t either.  Gentleness was for making love - something that had belonged only to Nate and then, briefly, to MacCready. What she and Gage were doing was fucking and she had no illusions about that. The rougher, the better, so that there could be no confusion.  It deadened the aching need that coiled and knotted inside her and let her escape from the emptiness for awhile. That was all that she needed it to be.

“You don’t have to pull out,” she told him afterwards when they’d both cleaned up and returned to the bed.  

They sprawled out together among the blankets, listening to the storm and watching the lightning crackle across the horizon.  Gage glanced at her, frowning slightly.

“You ain’t worried about getting . . . you know?”

She smirked at him.  A tough raider like him, a man who could blow someone’s head off and then complain about his shot being off by a quarter inch, and still he couldn’t say the word “pregnant”.

“No.”  At his dubious expression, she sighed. “It’s not going to happen.  I’m fucked up inside. Nothing that slows me down, there just aren’t going to be any more babies, so you can relax.”

The terror of that day was still burned into Nora’s brain just as deeply as the first time that she had jumped from a plane under enemy fire.  She’d been alone when the contractions started. Nate was deployed, she hadn’t spoken to her family in years, and Nate’s family was too far away.  It was obvious that something was wrong from the beginning. The pain had ripped through her like a barrage of minigun fire. They had gotten Shaun out in the nick of time at the hospital, but there had been a lot of blood and confusion.  It had been a close call, but she had pulled through. She had promised Nate, and her baby - this tiny new person that they had created together - needed her.

Later, they would tell her that it was the result of internal scarring from the wounds she had sustained during the war.  Stimpacks couldn’t fix everything. It was a miracle that she’d ever gotten pregnant or carried a baby to term in the first place.  There would never be another.

Maybe that was why it had hurt so much to see how her little miracle had turned out in the end.

Nate had always wanted a family and she was too broken to even do that right.  Nora had held off telling him until he was home and then only after she had spent a couple of month working up the courage.  In the end, she needn’t have worried. He’d only kissed her and told her that the three of them were perfect the way that they were, and she’d fallen helplessly in love with him all over again.  Two weeks before the bombs fell.

“Any more?  You got a kid out there?” Gage asked, surprised.

Nora cursed her phrasing and hesitated.

She had never told Gage about her past.  In the beginning, there had been no reason to and it wasn’t a subject that she wanted to discuss anyway.  There was no going back, so it didn’t matter. Now, though, as much as he had confided in her about his own history, as much as they had been through together, maybe she owed him a little of the truth.

“Yeah,” she admitted and then sighed. “And no.  It’s complicated.”

He listened as she gave him the basic outline.  Her life before the War. The day the bombs fell.  Vault 111. Her husband’s murder and her son’s kidnapping.  She didn’t tell him the rest - about the nearly year long fight to get into the Institute to rescue her child only to find herself face to face with a 60-year-old man instead.  She didn’t tell him about how, briefly, she had tried to make things work with Shaun and how in the end it had only made her die a little more inside every time she had walked back into the cold, clinical walls of the Synth Retention Bureau.

She didn’t tell him about the night that she had finally found herself sitting in the silence of her sterile, comfortable quarters with a mostly empty bottle of whiskey and her sidearm pressed against her temple, trying to come up with any reason other than cowardice not to pull the trigger.

“Damn, Boss.  That's rough.”

Nora felt his hand smooth over her back, an unexpected gesture of comfort from someone as opposed to “softness” as Gage. More had changed last night than just the sex. That could get tricky, but right now she was grateful for it.

“And here I was feeling like a dirty old man for taking up with a sweet young thing like you,” he chuckled, trying to draw her back out of her dark thoughts. “Turns out you’re even older than me.”

His fingers settle over her tattoo, tracing the black ink.

“What’s swa . . . su-a  . . . aw, hell,” Gage cursed irritably as he tripped over the Latin and Nora laughed.

“ _ Soo-ah spon-tay _ ,” she corrected him. “It means ‘of their own accord’. ”

“People talked like that back in your day?  Shit, no wonder they blew each other up.”

She cast a narrow glance up at him, noting his facetious smile before settling down again.

“I was a soldier.    _ Sua Sponte _ was the motto of the regiment I belonged to. The 75th Airborne Rangers.  We had to volunteer three times: once for the military, then for airborne training - that’s jumping from aircrafts - and last for the Rangers themselves.  We went into some of the hardest fighting in the war by our own choice.”

“Just born a badass, weren’t you?” he joked appreciatively and Nora felt a pang deep in her heart.

The danger had never mattered to her and neither had the prestige.  The Army had been her way out - the only place that she knew the Gravianos wouldn't touch her.  She had fought tooth and nail to make sure that it stayed that way and all that hard work, as well as no small amount of talent for the job, had led her to the Rangers.  Jumping out of airplanes behind enemy lines in foreign countries had seemed preferable to the life that she’d left behind in Boston. 

Until it had started to feel like the same thing.

“We were supposed to be defending our country,” she said before she could stop the thought from taking form.  Her voice was dry in the damp air of the old restaurant. “In the end, I’m not sure that what we were doing then was much different than what you and I are doing now.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with that,” Gage insisted and then amended thoughtfully, “You ask me, sounds like you always been a raider. You just didn’t know it.”

“I think you might be right.”

“Only now, you can cut loose.  You ain’t got anyone to yell orders at you anymore.”

“Well, I have you,” she teased him and heard him laugh as he tugged a lock of her hair.

“Whatever does it for you,” he growled suggestively.

Eventually, hunger won out over laziness and Nora pulled on some clothes against the chill before wandering down to the kitchen to find lunch.  Gage followed and leaned against the counter, watching as she tortured a couple of packages of Saddle-Up Salisbury Steak into something worth eating.  An improvised breading made of razorgrain flour and mirelurk egg and a quick fry in brahmin tallow would do the trick.

Her Nonna would have been appalled that this was what she called cooking now, but it was the best that Nora could do with limited ingredients.  It might not be the family’s cherished Sunday sauce over pasta and veal, but Nora was reasonably sure that she was the best cook in Nuka-Town and so the Armati women’s legacy was secure.

“The gangs are going to expect an answer tomorrow,” she ventured as she worked. “The Operators will get the bottling plant like we talked about. I think we should give Safari to the Pack.  They’re going to be easier to keep a handle on than the Disciples and I’d bet on Mason in a fight.”

“Nisha’s not gonna like it,” Gage shrugged, “but not a bad call.  The Pack and the Operators together are more than a match for the Disciples if it came down to it.”

“I don’t want Nisha on the warpath either.  We’ve got to figure out a way to make things equal out.”

From the way Gage shifted, Nora could tell that he already had some ideas about that.  Of course he did. He probably had from the very beginning. She grinned.

“Spit it out, Gage.  What’s your plan?”

“Well, we ain’t gonna magic another park out of thin air,” he began slowly. “And there ain’t shit around here that’d be worth taking over to give to the Disciples.  So, to me, looks like it might be time to take on the Commonwealth.”

Nora paused dead in the middle of flipping one the steaks in the hissing grease.

He had to be shitting her.  Nuka-World was treacherous enough, but the Commonwealth was a tangled mess of raiders, super-mutants, settlers, and other warring factions all butting heads with each other and ripping up the landscape. The Brotherhood ramping up their vendetta against the Institute had only further complicated an already explosive situation.  Before Nora had left, it had taken her a lot of pain-staking negotiation, cajoling, and underhanded deal-making to keep the Minutemen, the Brotherhood, and the Railroad focused on the Institute instead of fighting each other. Gage couldn’t know her personal reasons for wanting to steer well away from the place, but he couldn’t seriously think this was a viable idea.

“Yeah, Gage, and after that, why not the moon?” she teased half-heartedly.  Nora didn’t look back to see his expression, but she heard him chuckle.

“Nah, the Little Green Men can keep that one.” His voice turned serious again quickly. “We’re gonna need resources to keep this operation going.  The gangs need something to focus on or they’re gonna start fighting again. We don’t keep them busy, we’re gonna be back where we started. Besides, with the way you operate, there ain’t nothing that’s gonna stand in your way for long.”

Nora chose to bypass the flattery, although she knew that it was mostly sincere.  As usual, Gage’s points were worth considering. Without a definite goal ahead of them, the gangs would lose discipline and start competing with each other again.  The supplies in the parks would dwindled over time and there was only so much that could be accounted for through the market. Expansion and infrastructure were going to be the key to long-term stability for the raiders and there was only so far to expand into the sparse landscape surrounding Nuka-World.  She frowned into the skillet as she prodded the food, trying to think of a way to navigate around the snag without revealing too much.

“Even so, that’s a tall order.  The Minutemen have most of the northern half of the Commonwealth solidly defended at this point.  The place is crawling with Brotherhood patrols, too. We don’t have the manpower or the hardware for a surge.  That’s a fight we can’t win without some long-term planning.”

“I ain’t proposing we take the whole thing overnight.  We go slow. Do it smart. Get us a good solid foothold in a settlement and then build up.  At first, it just looks like one more raider gang moving in. By the time those chumps figure out what’s going on, they won’t be able to stop it.”

There was a pause.  Nora could almost hear Gage putting the pieces together in his mind and she felt her heart sink.

“You leave something behind you there?” he asked carefully. “I mean, I know you ain’t scared of the Gunners.  Figured you had your reasons, but I always did wonder why you ended up on that train after you scared Harvey into tipping his hand.”

She didn’t want to tell him the truth - not the whole truth, anyway.  She didn’t like the idea of lying to Gage either, though. You could lie to anyone else, but it was bad business to lie to your own partner, at least one that you wanted to keep working with.  How could she even begin to condense the last year and a half into something that he would understand anyway? Nora could feel his gaze on her, waiting, as she transferred the food to a couple of plates.

“My life there wasn’t exactly low profile,” she settled on at last, cutting the gas to the stove and wiping her hands.  “I wanted out. The Gunners afforded me some anonymity for awhile as long as I kept my head down, but it still took a lot of hard work to maintain.  I’m not anxious to bust that whole mess wide open again.”

“Huh, so you got a past.  Who doesn’t?” Gage retorted dismissively.  He straightened as she glanced back at him.  His good eye glinted in the dim light of the kitchen as his smile twisted shrewdly. “Come on, Boss.  This is me you’re talking to. I shoot straight with you, you shoot straight with me - that was the deal, right?”

He had her there.  And while every deal was ultimately made to be broken, now wasn’t the time for this one.  Nora sighed.

“Those settlements you’re talking about?” she answered finally as she shoved a plate down the counter towards him and dumped the hot skillet in the sink to deal with later.  “I used to run most of them. Built some of them myself from the ground up. I know those people. I was their General.”

It took him a moment, but realization dawned on Gage’s features as he caught her meaning.

“You serious?” he asked her, grinning in amusement. “I’d heard someone lit a fire under the Minutemen and kicked nine shades of shit out of a bunch of those Commonwealth gangs.  That was you?”

She nodded reluctantly and he laughed.

“Well, I’ll be damned.  What happened? You get tired of the straight and narrow and decide to come find out what you were missing?”

Nora rolled her eyes at him, but it was hard not to smile with that shit-eating grin on his face.

“I’m serious, Gage. The Minutemen weren’t my only iron in the fire back there either.  Things got messy. I’m dead as far as the Commonwealth is concerned and that’s how I’d like to keep it.  If we start busting up settlements, word is going to get around. More than just the Minutemen are going to come banging on our door.”

“Okay, so we got something else we gotta plan for,” he shrugged, but then his eye narrowed at her thoughtfully. “You ain’t afraid of what those useless fucks out there are gonna think of you now, are you?  That ain’t like you, Boss.”

Nora frowned down at her plate.

As far as the settlers went, she realized, she didn't care anymore.  The Minutemen and the settlements had always been a means to an end, but there had been a part of her in the beginning that had wanted to help wring some sanity back into the place if she could.  If nothing else, she would need a safe place to raise Shaun when everything was said and done. Stomping through the backwaters of the Commonwealth, sorting out problems that could have been solved just as easily by the settlers themselves with a few boxes of ammo and a little backbone, had cured her of her sympathy.  

It was the others that she was worried about.

Preston Garvey would never forgive her after all the faith that he’d put in her as General, that much she knew for certain. Neither would Nick Valentine, although the synth detective would probably be the least surprised.  His streetwise Chicago cop instincts had tipped what she was right from the very beginning, but he’d wanted better from her than that and she’d tried. Piper would be furious. Nora could just see the exposé in Publick Occurrences now.  Deacon would try to turn her back into a Railroad asset. He wasn’t in any position to judge and even a raider had uses. If Cait hadn’t overdosed herself into an early grave already, she’d laugh at the irony. Hancock would probably have a bullet with her name on it waiting if she ever set foot in Goodneighbor again.

It was Danse that would be the hardest to face if it ever came down to it.  He’d been a good commanding officer - maybe the best she’d ever had. Letting the Brotherhood think that she had been killed in action had been, in part, a means of sparing him the consequences of her failures.  His disgust and disappointment in her when he learned the truth was something that Nora never wanted to see.

She couldn’t bring herself to even imagine what Mac would think of her now.

“It’s not that.”

“Let me ask you something,” Gage drawled, taking charge of the conversation now as she faltered. “All those settlements were just shitty little mud holes when you got there, right?  You’re the one that protected ‘em. Built ‘em up. Got their shit together. You’re the one who bled for them, not those chumps. So, the way I see it, they’re already yours. You got every right to step in and do whatever the fuck you want with them. Right?”

Nora stared at him mutely.  She knew what he was doing, trying to talk her over to his side, but as usual he did have a point and onne that had crossed her mind irritably more than once when she had been General.  Sensing that he had her attention now, Gage’s smile tipped up confidently.

“See, your trouble ain’t that you’re soft, it’s just that you been around a bunch of soft idiots for too long.  Used to holding yourself back. Only now you got a good taste of blood again and liked it, ain’t no call to hold back anymore.”

“I’ve never liked it, Gage,” she protested wearily, sitting her plate down on the counter, her food still untouched. “I do what I have to do to get by.  That's all.”

She heard his incredulous grunt as he shook his head.

“That’s bullshit. Maybe back in the day when you were marching around in neat little lines and taking orders from assholes you could pass it off like that, but there ain’t no lines or orders anymore.  You came to us, remember? You could’ve high-tailed it out of here first chance you got, but look who’s still here. Sua sponte, huh, Nora?”

The curse of the Ranger’s motto - the very words that were branded into her skin - thrown back at her felt like a punch to the gut, as did her name from Gage's lips.  It silenced any further argument that she could give. She hadn’t come to Nuka-World to become a raider, she had come there to die, but she hadn’t exactly put up a fight to get away afterward either.  Taking the parks and keeping peace among the gangs had seemed innocuous enough, barely different from working contracts with the Gunners, but what Gage was asking her to do now was take the final step across the line.

_ As if you don’t already have an ocean of innocent blood on your hands _ , her snide inner voice retorted.

Her eyes closed as she felt Gage step in close to her.  The weight of his solid hands settled onto her shoulders and she heard his voice lower conspiratorially.

“Truth is, you always kind of liked it even back then.  Didn’t you?” He leaned down near her ear, evidently amused at the way her muscles went taut beneath his fingers. “Truth is, you always knew what you were.”

And as much as she wanted to deny it, as much as she wanted to believe that he was just trying to get at her, Nora knew that he was right.

Her father had seen it in her from an early age.  If there was something that she wanted, she would find a way to get it.  If there was a fight, one way or another, she would win. She could lie her way out of almost anything.  She could figure out how to exploit any rule to her advantage with enough time to think about it. Even as a child, it had felt good to know that she could twist people - especially the adults - that way.  It had made her feel powerful to know that she could skirt around the rules so long as she was smart and didn’t overdo it. And the pleasure of making a rival suffer had come to Nora young.

_ The apple never falls far from the tree _ , she had been told affectionately.  She was just like her old man and nothing could have made her prouder at the time.

That had all changed in her teens once her father was under prosecution and the full gravity of his crimes had settled in on her.  Murders. Extortion. Broken families. Lives ruined. Hearing the litany and seeing the anguished faces in the courtroom had frightened her.  Instead of the hero that Nora had grown up worshiping, there had been a monster in her life all along. And, because they were alike, that monster was inside of her, too.

It would not happen to her.  She had resolved that immediately. Family would always be Family, but a few things were too sacred even for La Cosa Nostra to trespass against.  It was either the Church or the military and Nora knew that she wasn’t cut out for a nun. The day after her high school graduation, she had marched down to the local recruitment office and enlisted.  She had thrown herself into training with a vengeance and never looked back.

The monster, though, thrived under her uniform just as surely as it would have in the Gravianos. In the Army, it was controlled.  Channeled. Weaponized. What would have been criminal on the streets of Boston was praised as honorable service to country when directed against the Red Chinese or the Canadian resistance.  Even in the worst parts of the war when the patriotic rhetoric was no longer sufficient to mask what she was doing, there had been a grim pleasure in it all the same. Accomplishing her mission against all odds and conditions was a point of personal pride.  She had loved the skill involved, if not necessarily the killing. There was little that could compare to the thrill of being a professional at the height of her game even if that game was war and death.

The only thing that had held her back from embracing it fully was Nate.  He had always been too good for her. He had refused to lose her, not to the war and not to herself, and she had loved him for that among many other reasons.  Nora would have moved heaven and earth rather than disappoint him, but now . . .

“You ain’t gonna be happy ‘til you stop fighting it.” One of Gage’s hands slid up her neck, making her skin pebble with goosebumps at the cold chill that rushed up her spine. His voice was warm, sliding through her thoughts despite her resistance. “I been there.  I know. You and me? This right here is what we were fucking made for. We can turn things out there on their god-damn head and have a hell of a good time doing it. Can’t think of anyone I’d rather loot and murder with.”

Nora’s eyes opened and she looked up at the man standing over her, a fire in his hazel eye that was more than just lust this time.  She understood that look all too well. Her face had probably looked the same back in the days when everything was either death or glory and she had lived for the next jump like a junkie lived for their next hit of Med-X.  It was only the fear of losing Nate that had broken her away from it in the end. 

That was when it finally dawned on her.

It was Nate, still, that she was trying to live up to - trying to live  _ for _ \- nearly two years after she had lost him.  He was what had gotten her through China and Canada and that first disorienting year of civilian life.  The frenzied drive to murder the man who had hurt him was what had gotten her through the nightmare rage of her early days in the Commonwealth.  He was why she had never pulled the trigger on herself or walked out into gunfire and let someone else do it for her, although she had wanted nothing more than for it to all, finally, be over.  

No matter how much she had loved him, no matter how badly Nora still ached for him sometimes, she couldn’t live and die for a husband that was never coming back. The shredded tatters of her childhood Catholicism with its hope for heaven had been buried two centuries ago in the cold Canadian ground.  Nate wasn’t sitting up there in some afterlife watching her.

She couldn’t disappoint him anymore.

As for the living, they would have had their illusions shattered sooner or later anyway.  MacCready, at least, would be better off without her. She could remember their last night together unspoiled by what would have inevitably come after.  She could leave it knowing that she had done at least one truly good and selfless thing in her life by helping him save his son. If she could protect the others, she would, but there was no point in saving face any longer.  She was what she was and, apparently, that never going to change.

And there were others in her life now to fill the voids left behind.

“So, you with me?” Gage asked expectantly.

Nora allowed her hand to wander up his chest to his poorly shaven cheek beneath the steel plate of his eyepatch, her fingers grazing the cold metal.  She had never asked how he had lost the eye. That would be a story for another day. For now, she kissed him, firmly and then fiercely as she felt his arms wrap around her waist.  She gave herself up to it and was gratified by the ardor of his response.

_ Goodbye, Nate _ , she thought sadly as they broke and she sighed into the raider’s embrace.

“If I’m hell-bound anyway, I guess I might as well go in good company.”  

She shifted, standing back to look up at him seriously.

“But we do this one my way, Gage.  Gangs are your specialty. War is mine.”

“You got it,” he assured her.  His smile was like a little kid’s on Christmas morning - triumphant, energized, and eager - and she felt some of the heaviness inside of her melt.  His rough fingers traced her cheek affectionately. “You know, there’s gonna be a lot of people sorry the two of us teamed up, but me? Only thing that could make this better was if you’d come along sooner.  I fucking mean that.”

“Hey, I had to wait 200 years in a freezer for this.  Count yourself lucky.”

~~0~~

The atmosphere in the Grille grew thick with tension as the last of the gang bosses arrived.  None of them had ever been invited up to the Grille before and Gage watched as they milled and inspected the place before settling down into the comfortable chairs that had been provided for them.  The trader that had been brought up to serve delivered their drinks and then fled back behind the bar. Gage leaned against the counter, keeping an eye on the situation as they all waited for the Boss to emerge.

Mason, Nisha, and the Blacks eyed each other suspiciously, rivals that just barely managed to tolerate each other at the best of times, but he knew that they would keep the peace.  They might talk tough, but none of them were going to risk causing a scene in the Overboss’ domain. It was rare that they were all in the same place at the same time anyway. Some serious shit had to be going down for that to happen.  Usually, the Boss went out to them, but she had turned the tables on them this time and he could see their uneasy anticipation.

She had promised them an answer about the two remaining parks today.  They thought they knew what they were here for, just not the specific way that it would settle out.  Gage smiled to himself.

They had no fucking idea.

The Boss entered from the Grille’s inner rooms.  She had been preparing for this since the previous evening, he knew.  Her black leathers had been cleaned and shined for the occasion. Fresh jagged designs were shaved into her temples.  The guns strapped to her hip and under her arm were there as much for effect as for practical use - a reminder of who they were all dealing with and what she was capable of.

Half of winning a fight was scaring the other chump into not fighting at all. The purpose of the Boss’ look wasn’t lost on Gage.  Each of the gang leaders could see something of their own crew in her - the sharp, tasteful simplicity of her clothes for the Operators, the wildness of her hair for the Pack, and the weapons to remind the Disciples of the violence that she committed on their behalf daily.  At the same time, she was visibly separate from all of them. Always clad in black, none of the gangs’ colors would ever touch her. The Overboss was something outside, beyond, and above the rest. She was the place where the three joined together and became more than they could ever be on their own.

And god damn if she didn’t look hot as hell doing it, too.

Gage fell in behind her, taking up his position to her right as Shank hung behind her on the left.  Most of the raiders in Nuka-World owed allegiance to one of the gangs. Gage and Shank alone worked solely for the Overboss.  That would change with time, but for right now, it was a rare mark of prestige. If the Boss trusted you enough to turn her back to you, that was something special.  Not even the gang leaders themselves enjoyed that privilege.

“First, let me welcome you to the Grille,” the Boss addressed them in a precise, friendly tone. “I’m told that the last Overboss kept mostly to himself up here.  Well, we’ve all seen what happens to a man who doesn’t know how to entertain guests.”

There was a dark chuckle from the gang leaders.  Colter’s last attempt at entertaining the raiders had ended in his death.  All eyes were riveted on her now, though, as she continued.

“In the past, I’ve come to see you individually in your compounds when there was business to be discussed.  I was happy to do it. Respect is earned through action and giving respect in kind. As of today, Nuka-World - all of it - is ours.  I didn’t start this party, but I’ve kept a promise that was made to you over a year ago. So, today, I’ve invited you all here to hear the next steps together.”

“And how could we refuse?” Mags offered back charmingly.

“Hell of a view up here,” Mason added with a smirk as his eyes traveled down the Boss’ form and back up.

For once, Gage wasn’t bothered by the Pack leader’s open flirtation.  It was a smile instead of a scowl that he was keeping down this time. Let the animal look. Let him keep on hopelessly chasing what he was never going to get, because Gage already had it.  The thought sent a tendril of pleasure through him - something to recall later that night when he and Nora were alone.

Nisha was silent.  Her face was unreadable beneath her steel mask.

“Before new business, though, the spoils.  A much-deserved return on your investments,” the Boss told them as she paced slowly. “I don’t have to explain the importance of the old bottling plant to you.  Bottling requires bottle caps and those caps were manufactured right here in Nuka-World. The machinery to grant us near limitless wealth exists in that building. All we need to do is find it and get it running again.”

She gestured towards the Black siblings, whose bored expressions lifted slightly as they were recognized.

“To that end, I’m giving the plant to the Operators.  With the improvements to the mainframe at the Galactic Zone and their management of the market and caravan routes, I’m confident that they’re up to the task.  All of us will benefit from more caps rolling in.”

Gage noted Mags’ and William’s smug exchange of glances, but also Nisha’s cold stillness next to them.  Mason leaned forward in his chair, his hands on his knees, a serious and focused expression on his striped face.  They all knew that there was only one other park to assign and that things could get ugly depending on how it was handled.  The Boss’ smile did not diminish.

“Safari Adventure covers the most territory of all the parks except Kiddie Kingdom. It’s solid, defensible, a mix of hardened buildings and open spaces - built to contain the animals that were kept there.  As we get stronger, as we grow in numbers, we’re going to need more workers - willing or otherwise. I have a feeling that the cages and pits of Safari are going to see a lot of use over the coming months.”

She indicated the Pack leader affectionately.

“The Pack patrol the streets of Nuka-Town day and night.  They do the heavy lifting on managing the traders. Every week, I see new collars in their pens.  Safari Adventures will be in good hands with the Pack.”

A relieved grin spread across the Alpha’s face, but all eyes immediately turned towards Nisha, who had not moved a single muscle where she sat.  A dangerous silence hung in the air. The Boss spread her hands, acknowledging it.

“Now, I know what you’re all thinking.  With only two parks to give out, someone is going to be left short.  To me, that’s unacceptable. No Overboss worth your respect would allow hard work to go unrewarded.  And we all know that no one is more dedicated to their craft than Nisha and her people.”

Gage could hear breaths catching in the room.  He kept his face carefully neutral, but it was hard to do when he already knew what was coming.  After taking her to meet with Shank, he and the Boss had talked everything over at length. He’d listened to her practice this speech, getting the inflection and turn of phrase just right.  Compared to the illiterate morons around him, Gage had always thought that he had a certain way with words, but he couldn’t hold a candle to the Boss. Aside from being a knockout and damned good with a gun, she was a conwoman after his own heart.

“Most raiders would have been content with just Nuka-Town. Just look at Colter,” the Boss asserted forcefully, looking each of the gang leaders in the eye in turn. “But you?  You’re here because you think big. You saw the potential in this place. Soon, we’ll have the power plant operational. Soon, the market here will be the biggest nexus of trade in this entire region.  Every cap that comes this way will flow through our hands first. Soon, there won’t be a force on this coast that can stand against us. So, I ask you: why stop here?”

A smile was starting to form on Nisha’s lips as the Boss let her words sink in for a moment.  Mason was captivated, gripping the arms of his chair as he hung on her every word. Even Mags and William had dropped their disinterested air.  The Boss straightened and nodded as she saw realization dawn on their faces.

“The Commonwealth,” she agreed.  “I may not have three more parks to split evenly between three of the most dangerous gangs in this god-damned country, but we’re not limited to just parks anymore.  I can tell you one thing for certain: as long as you’re with me, I will make certain that we all get exactly what we deserve and then some. If it means that I have to go kick down Diamond City’s precious Wall to make it happen, so be it.”

Mason’s triumphant howl echoed across the Grille as the Black siblings applauded. The Boss’ smile was radiant as she gestured loftily at the Disciple leader.

“So, congratulate Nisha, because I have something very special in mind for her Disciples - something I think that they’re uniquely suited to enjoy.  Plans are already underway. In a week or so, we unleash unholy hell on the Commonwealth. Our first stronghold there, our next step towards making this a fucking empire, will be built on Disciple blades.”  She winked at the sadistic, masked woman in front of her. “Just leave some of the settlers alive for us, Nisha, alright? We’re going to need all hands on deck to keep this machine going.”

Gage joined the clapping, unable to stop himself from grinning anymore as he felt his heart leap with fierce pride.  This was how it was meant to be. This was what he’d been after from the moment that he’d joined his first raider gang decades ago.  Colter had nearly ruined it. Things had spiraled out of control so many times. He’d had his doubts about this Boss, too, along the way, but no more.  She was committed now. Whatever had been holding her back before had finally lost its grip on her and nothing was going to stop them.

For once in his life, he realized, he had a real partner. Someone who got it - who understood the way this shitty world worked.  Someone he could trust. She wasn’t just a convenient shill like Colter or any of the other bosses that he’d tolerated along the way.  With her sly wit, deadly skill, and charisma, Nora was the full package. She was the missing piece that he had never realized he was lacking until now. It seemed like she was coming around to the same conclusion about him. They weren’t out of the woods just yet, but if it was the two of them against the world, Gage liked their odds.

And, watching her from the sidelines as she moved smoothly among the gang leaders, he fucking loved her for that.


End file.
